LadiDadi

Rain. Rain. More rain. Delayed until tomrrow. Gahd dehmmit. If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

I totally agree!! Back when I was dating - oh - about a hundred and fifty years ago, this became one of my first date questions or pre-date questions. I was shocked at the number of men who answered 'yes' to the question that were offended by my response. If a guy had kids then the date became some friends hanging out; there would be no second date. Most guys would get really pissed about it. I would explain that I didn't want to have any kids of my own, why would I want someone else's? I also wouldn't date a guy who didn't have kids but wanted them. I made that mistake for 5 years with a guy. It's not really something you can compromise on. He wants 4 you want none so you have two??? ************************* The answer to the original poster's question of how much you should spend on a first date is: You shouldn't have to spend any more than half if the chick is cool but you should be prepared to pay for all of it. (unless she asked you out in which case I think she should pay) If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

Oh my god I love Waffle House. There isn't one anywhere near where I live, though. Take her to get tacos from a roach coach and then watch a movie on a portable DVD player in your car. It'll cost you more than a hundred bucks but you'll at least get to keep the DVD player. If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

First a disclaimer: I've been married for ten years so what the hell do I know? Regardless, I have to ask - what in the hell kind of dates do you guys go on that cost over $100? Holy crap, I wish you were around when I was single. If it's a first date to get laid, buy her a nice dinner, buy her top shelf drinks and get on with it. If it's someone you want to get to know, you must plan. The best dates are to do something totally out of the ordinary. If you have lived somewhere for many years or your whole life that tourists like to go, there are likely a ton of things that tourists line up to do that you've never done. The "it'll always be there attitude". Take her for a wander around town, get food from a hot dog vendor, buy her a I (heart) wherever you live t-shirt. If she's not having fun with that or thinks you're an idiot for suggesting it, it's the last date. Zoos are always great. You will get to see how she reacts to animals humping (an 'eeewww GROSS' is a red flag), children screaming (this depends on your love or lack of love for children), bad smells (hopefully coming from the animals and not you), etc. Best if they have a petting zoo. See if she freaks out over getting dirty and slobbered on (not *that* kind of dirty and slobbered on - that comes later). If things go well, most zoos have a nocturnal house which is a good place to make a move... If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

Ummm... Yeah... How do you think I feel?!? Shitty thing is looking at the weather forecast is not making me think that it will happen on Thursday. I hate, hate, hate living in Seattle for sooooo many reasons! [edited because I'm an idiot] If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

peregrinerose, format, everyone else: YOU GUYS FUCKING ROCK!!! If I can sucker someone into coming with me, I'll get pictures. If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

Two jumps scheduled for Thursday - last static line and first supervised freefall. I just hope the weather holds so I don't have to postpone it any further. You know I'm going to be inching (more like 'millimetering') my way out on the wing repeating to myself over and over: BE the cupcake! BE the cupcake! BE the cupcake! (note the addition to the signature line) If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

If you intend to stay with this chick - which you may want to reconsider given this huge red flag she just whacked you upside the head with - sit down with her and work out what *exactly* is 'his' 'hers' and 'ours' as far as income goes and who pays what or what portion of what. Excel spreadsheets are good for this. THEN go and open a bank account. You will have your sole bank account, she will have her sole bank account and you will have a joint bank account. You each put x number of dollars into the joint account that is used to pay for the things you *both* consume (rent, utilities, food, etc.). Everything else is none of her business and none of your business. If you don't want her to question what you spend your money on then you can't question what she spends her money on as long as the joint bills are paid. My husband and I did this prior to getting married and for a few years after we were married and it worked out very well. If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

I'll echo what daremrc said. I'm new to the skies as well but this applies to any situation like this. Rather than incur more debt on top of what you have now (student loans), look first to see what you can change in your life. Coffee at home rather than a $6.00 espresso (or however much they cost - I don't drink coffee), invite your friends over for beer rather than go out for beer, do you really need the full package of cable TV or cable TV at all, etc. Go through all the things in your life that you once thought of as necessities and see if that designation still holds up; really and truly holds up. Do you have car payments? If you do, can you sell the car and buy a used one out-right without losing money? Like daremrc, I don't have kids, my cars are paid for, I'm not pushing 30 so much as pulling it at this point (I'm 35), I work for myself so I make sure I am paid well and have all the days off I need. I have, however, made the same sorts of 'exchanges' I mention since starting skydiving. I have put other things aside to make room for skydiving so that the balance stays the same. Not only will it help out now when you're young and still paying for college and working on a career (*gasp* I still hate that word...) and maybe don't have a lot of money - it will help you once you get all of those things sorted out and start making a lot of money. Once you get rich, it will help you stay that way If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

Everyone is well informed of my 'issue' (?) 'condition' (?) 'thing' (?)... Oh hell, I tend to refer to it as 'my kidney hole'. If they haven't read the waiver thoroughly then the "I donated a kidney and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" shirt I wear ought to clue them in. I also have informed the instructors in addition to what's on the waivers. I also eschew the 'no jewelry' rule so I can wear my medic alert dog tag (stuffed down my shirt and tucked into my bra for extra safety). I'm a super noob so you never know where I may end up landing and I figure it's worth the risk to wear it than to not. My doctor drilled into my head the importance of wearing one since the scars I have are consistent with someone who has had their gallbladder or appendix removed so EMT's may not consider the belly scars to be indicative of anything major. This is the same doctor who said I could skydive but that I couldn't participate in the following sports: Football Rugby Basketball (because I'm 5'2" - he seriously said that) Cage fighting Dragon slaying If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

What has nine arms and sucks? Def Leppard. If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

My doctors have all told me that the biggest risk of me skydiving is the drive to the DZ. Did she ask why? If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

My dad absolutely rocks. Without question. He's the one who told me when I was 4 years old that, no matter what he said to them, there was no way anyone was going to let me go off the jump towers at Ft. Benning but to just wait and be patient and some day... 30 years later, he's the one who set up my first skydive for me. I'd gone through phases over the years yammering for the chance and every time he nixed the idea. "No. Not there. Not now. Wait for the right time and the right place." The right time and the right place was March 1st, 2007 at Yuma Proving Grounds in Yuma, AZ. I made my first jump with my dad on the ground cheering me on and a Golden Knight strapped to my back. He was right. I would never have been able to do any of this if it weren't for him making me wait for the ultimate intro to this world. I also have gotten some amazing encouragement from my beloved Golden Knights. (if any of you read this - I'm 'the Colonel's daughter' - Sinor, that is...) Woo hoo! I should be jumping again on Thursday if the weather report is somewhat accurate. Yay! If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

I don't consider this a disability in the least but, then again, I don't consider much of anything a disability but... I was wondering if there are many people out there with an odd number of kidneys. That's right - not the two most people come standard with but either one kidney or three. I donated my left kidney to my mom on June 1st, 2006. I was wondering if there were any limitations to getting licensed if you have one kidney. The comon school of thought is that skydiving is off limits to living kidney donors because of risk of injury to the lone kidney. The transplant surgeon who removed my kidney placed only two conditions on me with regards to skydiving - Don't get shot on the right side on the way down and try not to land on anything sharp on that side once you get on the ground. He also muttered a "hey, if you're stupid enough to do it..." Anyway, I just wondered if I was the only one here with one kidney. Ladi Dadi - aka 'Unikidney' If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

Seriously give Pilates some thought. How can you say that Pilates scares you? We're supposed to tough chicks, right? The main benefit of doing that and/or ballet is that it will 'open up your hips' - meaning give you more flexibility and strength in your hip joints as well as change the way you walk so that it's more fluid rather than banging up and down. Whatever you do, DO NOT go take a Pilates mat class or any other group class. You need to meet with a certified Pilates instructor (trained in the Joseph Pilates method, not that creepy blonde chick that hawks videos on late night infomercials) who will provide you with personalized, one-on-one instruction. What usually scares people are the apparati but that's exactly what you need to start with. The mat work is what you build up your strength for. Incidentially, everytime I have had a new skydiving instructor, they've commented on my arch on the ground. That's Pilates. When you do the tandem ground training and they make you practice the sit-landing where you're balanced on your tail bone with your legs in the air - I can sit like that forever. That position is a core position of most Pilates mat exercises. My husband went to see a chiropracter out of frustration. I don't recommend it. The return on investment is about the same as setting fire to your money but far less satisfying. That was after he had a cortisone injection directly into the sciatic nerve where it branches out of the spinal cord. That was fun... The bitter irony of it all is that Pilates and ballet got him feeling so much better that he decided that it was time to try skydiving. Mostly it was "to see what's so damn great about it." Everything went soooo well other than sitting in a chair for the 4 hour static line training class. Everything was perfect. He made his first jump. He loved it. He miscalculated (by about ten+ feet) where the ground was and blew the landing. His left big toe is broken in two places and he now has one of those big ski boot looking casts. It's the same leg that has the compressed sciatic nerve so he's now begging for amputation. He's also wondering if he can jump again with a cast. He's not a bright man sometimes... If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

She (meaning *me*) has not jumped yet. I was going to go down to Kapowsin on Friday and get sorted out for the AFF course but woke up with some kind of hellacious stomach bug and spent most of the day sleeping on the bathroom floor. I'm gross like that. Then I came to the realization last night that I am doing what I usually do - overanalyzing the fun right out of things. Normally this is a workable flaw in my brain but, upon the encouragement and wisdom of my dear ol' Daddy, I came to realize that overanalyzing skydiving can get me (in his words) 'severely killed'. Good point. He also pointed out that if I were to do AFF and get licensed and skilled and whatever else, there would always be that voice in the back of my head telling me that no matter what I have accomplished - I can NOT do a static line jump. So I woke up this morning, no longer ill, no longer afraid and went to get the phone to call and set up a jump for today. It's pouring rain outside. Damnit. I will do that static line jump. I will do it this week. I will hang on. I will arch. I will be like the cupcake and suck it up. I will NOT tear my arm off. I will report back here. I can't thank you all enough. I love my new virtual family! If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

I have never even come close to experiencing what you have experienced. I would, however, highly - HIGHLY - recommend you see an Orthopedic Surgeon who specializes in Sports Medicine. There is a huge difference there. A phisical therapist who specializes in Sports Mecicine can be of great benefit for you as well. My husband has had three failed back surgeries to try and treat a compressed sciatic nerve and a whole host of physical therapists, chiropracters, pain management specialisit, massage therapists, you name it. None of it worked. Fortunately he has an open mind about things so he finally let me experiment on him. I did ballet for over 15 years including professionally. I also have done pilates for almost as long (dancers knew about it waaaay before Hollywood did). I built a ballet barre in one of the spare bedrooms and got to work on him. I figured that if I could teach 4 and 5 year old little girls ballet, I could teach a 35 year old man. This has worked far better for him than any of the other methods he has tried. The point is to explore every option you have, do not accept that 'this is just the way it is', push, shove, get yourself taken care of. Mostly, keep an open mind about things. You never know. I may start a ballet studio for grown ups with busted backs and legs... If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

I don't know what they used to offer but now Snohomish offers Static Line Progression or Tandem Progression. Thank god I opted for the Tandem Progression! It would really have sucked to hit this kind of snag on my first jump. The views are great there, that's for sure. Funny thing for me, though is that the instructors like to point out things in the plane to students - that's Puget Sound, there's Mt. Baker, over there is downtown Seattle... I stay with them up to this point. Then it becomes that's Lake Thingamajig and over there is Mt. Whooziwhats and waaaaaay over there is Mt. Giantsnowything. It's all pretty but I think I'm the only person up there that doesn't spend time in the woods. I don't camp well, I think hiking is odd, I don't ski anymore and I tried snowboarding once and ended up in a cast for 3 months. I live in Seattle in Fremont so the Edmonds - Kingston ferry wouldn't save me any time really. I could take the Bremerton ferry but it's $30.00 round trip (for either ferry) - the mileage is shorter but it takes almost an hour longer. My sister-in-law lives in Olympia. I may park myself at her house for a few days and get things done at Kapowsin. If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

I'm more familliar with 'suck it up buttercup' courtesy of my sister but either one works. I wasn't offended by it by any stretch. I did come across the wrong way with part of what I said. I do not in any way shape or form think that canopy skills are to be taken lightly. In fact, the more I get the chance to do it, I more I enjoy it. I know that skill with canopy piloting is the thing that will make or, literally, break me. I was only trying to get across the point that I wasn't afraid of anything to do with being out of the plane just with the process of getting out of the plane. Thankfully, the weather has turned to shite here today so I was forced to stay home and not go jump today. Thankfully because my arm still hurts along with the muscles in my shoulder and down my side. I'm also now the proud owner of a pair of gloves that footballers use to help them hold onto the ball. A friend of mine who is a former pro suggested I try them. If for nothing but the psychological safety of them. I'll add them to my talisman collection. Dad's jump wings? Check! Golden Knights coin? Check! Child sized football gloves? Check! Just please someone stop me before I get a rabbit's foot and a troll doll and end up looking like a car dash board or one of those bingo ladies... If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

Wow! You guys are great and I really appreciate all the advice and encouragement. format: Well, at least you didn't call me a wuss... I'm not bothered by the bruises themselves. If I was that delicate of a flower then I am pursuing the wrong thing. "So what"? Isn't being back down and twisted a less than optimal position to be in? popsjumper: I'm really not trying to second guess him or find anyone else to do that. I just honestly feel like he blew me off rather than took the time to *listen* to me. If he had simply stopped what he was doing, took a moment to listen to what I was trying to say to him, my confidence in him would be much greater than it currently is. If I feel that he is not listening to me then why would I feel that listening to him is going to lead me to answers? I have no hard feelings towards him or anyone else over this - except for maybe the little voice in my head - and I'm not angry at anyone but myself; there is no blame I'm looking to lay on anyone. I am responsible for myself and my piss poor exit from the plane. I will perform as trained once I am done asking a thousand questions. That's just who I am. I don't want to simply learn what to do but UNDERSTAND what I am doing as well. I will ask many, many questions before and after each jump. I would be concerned about a student that didn't question anything. I would agree if I had any fear of being out of the plane or performance anxiety about what goes on outside of the plane. I look forward to being out of the plane. GETTING out of the plane is what's freaking me out. I think I failed to mention that I am absolutely terrified of flying... On my first tandem jump I started sucking wind hard on the way up. My instructor asked me if I was okay or afraid to jump. I told him that I was afraid to fly and couldn't wait to jump - whatever it took to get the hell out of that plane! Please don't confuse asking questions with second guessing. Hahahaha yeah, okay. *snort* Seriously, you are exactly right here. That was the magic bean that I left on the ground. I did not feel that I had the ability/strength/skill/grace/charm/whatever to hold on to the strut. To loosely quote that Iowa cornfield baseball movie - I believed it and it came. peregrinerose: I should clarify this - when I say that I cinched it down as far as it would go what I'm referring to is that I had some rubber bands on it that marked where it should have been when I was standing up. I didn't actually crank the thing down. I couldn't have. I'm so short in the torso that sitting in the plane geared up puts the top of the pack behind my head and the chest strap in totally the wrong place. That's funny. Even though you probably didn't mean it to be, it still is. jimmytavino: I honestly don't know if he did or not. He was very encouraging to me the whole time I was trying to haul myself out of the plane. I hesitated several times and every time he said "You can do this. You KNOW you can do this." He wasn't pushy or 'airborne assault-y' at all. It was only when we were on the ground that I felt that we were no longer a team. Oh I am! I'm quite enjoying freaking people out with them. My favorite is "What?!? Did you fall or something?" Uh. Yeah. Actually, I did. "Off what?" An airplane. Good times... adobelover and danielcroft: Relax and have fun - I can do that once I'm out of the plane. Again, it's the getting out that's where the anxiety comes in. On my very first tandem jump, once the chute was open my first words were "Are you fucking kidding me?!? Cut the cords and let's go again!!" Surprisingly, he refused. I'm all about the freefall. The canopy ride is just a necessity so I can survive it. Baksteen: I'm not prejudiced against student gear because it's student gear. I'm prejudiced against things that are designed to save my life but don't fit right. I'm not worried in the least about looking cool. I'm worried about staying alive and (relatively) un-injured. Looking/acting cool has never been a concern of mine but nobody looks cool in a mangled heap on the ground. peregrinerose: You are absolutely correct. One of the tandem instructors said to me "the problem with gear that is built for everyone is that it doesn't really fit anyone." My husband made his first jump ever that same day and the gear fit him perfectly. He's 5'10" and 150lbs and had no complaints whatsoever about the gear. I also have my dad's voice in my head saying over and over "Don't worry about the money. Get your own gear. You can't afford NOT to." He also keeps going on about how lucky I am that I get to wear a parachute on my back and that I get to jump from higher than 800 feet and on and on. He's in the Army. I then fire back with "Didn't you guys have to jump from hot air balloons? Airplanes weren't invented yet, right?" He joined the Army in 1732 - I mean - 1966. Again - I can't thank you all enough for your help and well wishes!! Constructive advice is always welcome - keep it coming. If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

I've gotten bruises since my first tandem, I've actually been excited to see what crops up the next day. I have the lovely lash-mark type bruises on my thighs and what my dad (Army guy) calls 'harness hickeys' in my arm pits. Those are tooooootaly different than what I'm sporting now. Those I didn't notice. This hurts. This was scary. I wish I had AFF as a reasonable option but, as you know (since I just looked at your profile) Snohomish doesn't have AFF and the thought of driving to Kapowsin makes me cringe. Snohomish is bad enough... If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

Right. Poised exit. We practiced it on the ground a couple of times and it was one of those things that seemed good on paper. In practice? The word 'poised' did not apply to me. I assure you that I will not be stepping (or flopping or falling) out of a plane again until I figure all of this out. I have tried to get in contact with the instructor the past couple of days but I keep getting 'we'll give him the message' from the desk people. Tomorrow morning I am going to drive up there and camp out until he has some time to talk to me and help me figure this out. I decided to post the query here to get as many eyes as I could on the situation - anything to help me sort this out so I can re-focus on moving forward. If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

Oh, yeah, pictures... If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

Okay, here’s what happened. It’s a very long story but I figure that more details are better than leaving things out. It was my first static line jump – I’ve made 4 tandem jumps previously – as part of my tandem progression to get my license. The 4+ hour long class was great and I adore the instructor so no complaints there. No issues other than two things. One was that I was scared to practice the PLF off the platform because I’m a moron and get worked up over things like that. The other issue was a bit more serious. I had some serious anxiety about holding on to the wing strut. My right wrist has been broken twice and it simply isn’t as strong as it used to be. I also happen to be female and we aren’t typically known for our upper body strength and large hands. So I had some anxiety building up about that. I know all about self-fulfilling prophecies so let’s skip that part – I know that it definitely had something to do with it. We go up in the little wind-up toy of a plane with an instructor who was not the same one that did the ground class. I’m second out. I scoot up to the instructor and he does the equipment check on me. I repeat the check on what I can see/know about making sure that the chest strap on the rig is tightened down as far as it would go. My third tandem jump taught me the importance of this – the chest strap on the tandem harness came loose and slid up around my neck at opening and that wasn’t comfy. I give the static line a final yank and scoot up to the open door, turn and put my feet out on the step. Here’s where things start to unravel. I’m sitting there with my feet on the step, my right hand on the doorway and looking at the wing strut and thinking “I can’t even *reach* that from here!!” I’m 5’2” so it isn’t an unreasonable thought. So I scooted and shifted and scooted and shifted and became increasingly worried about the whole thing to the point where I did freeze up a bit. After some coaxing from the instructor, I finally managed to grab the strut with my left hand but still sat there for a moment worried about the pivot and reaching out with my right hand bit of the process. I remember thinking that the ‘un-poised exit’ would be a piece of cake – just dive and go sounded great to me. So I got out on the step, both hands on the strut and began the terrifying process of inching my way out and away from the plane. I got to the point where my right hand was out far enough but I didn’t feel that I had the strength at that point to be able to let go with my left hand to move it further out without falling off the plane so I stayed put. All I was able to do was get myself into a position where my left leg was still on the step and my right leg was flapping in the wind and the worry shifted. I then became concerned about hitting the step so I kept my left foot firmly planted on it – as long as my left foot was on the step, I knew where it was and I wouldn’t get brained by it. The only thing I could think to do then was to make sure that I was well clear of the step so when I let go with my hands, I kind of launched myself with my left foot in an attempt to push myself clear of the step. I gather now that this was my (non-)fatal error. During my brief fall, likely the only thing about me that was arched was the soles of my feet but they come that way naturally. I remember seeing the lines coming out and the rubber bands popping so I can only assume that I was in more of a back-down than belly-down position since my head doesn’t swivel that far. Here’s where the injury happened and the greatest mystery is. My right arm somehow got caught in the lines. Not the risers (not at first, anyway) but the lines. My right arm was up and over my head with the lines on the right side of the chute on the right side of my arm. That doesn’t make much sense… If you put your right arm at your side and bend your elbow 90 degrees with your palm facing in and hold your arm like that and then lift it out to the side even with your shoulder and your palm down, keep going until your upper arm is by your ear and your palm is facing out. That’s the position my arm was in with the lines to the outside of my arm. That makes less sense… Anyway… Thankfully there were no line twists or I wouldn’t be writing this. I got my arm free of the lines, made sure it was still securely attached to my body and checked the canopy about a thousand times a second. Then I noticed that the chest strap on the rig had come all the way loose. It was still attached but it was as loose as it goes. I don’t know if this happened when the chute opened or when I was flailing about like a rag doll after flopping out of the plane. I managed to steer myself safely to the ground and had a perfect PLF landing and laid there for a while shaking. As soon as I found the instructor who was on the plane with me, I asked him what in the hell happened to me. He said that I slipped off the step. Um. No. I didn’t slip but, fine. I asked him what I hit since, at this point, everything I described above hadn’t quite registered in my brain yet. He told me that I hit the static line with my arm but that it wasn’t anything to worry about since it happens all the time when students ‘try to swim back to the plane’. I told him that I wasn’t talking about hitting the static line – I didn’t know if I had or not – but that I was talking about what I hit with my right arm. He said that the only thing I hit was the static line. I told him that I was fairly certain that I hadn’t hit the static line with my right arm since the line was on my left. He said I didn’t hit anything and that it was probably just the harness that rubbed my arm when the chest strap came loose. I told him that this was more than rubbing and that it was not only my upper arm but down on my forearm by my wrist as well – if the harness caused that, I probably would have come out of it. He said he didn’t see anything that happened that would have hurt me. I will grant him that he can’t really see me once I’m under canopy but he had to have known if I was any degree of back-down when the cord pulled. I have no complaints whatsoever about the instructor who did the training class or any of the other instructors there but I do really feel as if he blew me off. I need to have a better idea of what the hell happened so I make sure I never EVER do it again. I have to do one more static line jump before I can move on unless I screw it up royally and I am so terrified at the thought of doing it. This is the first time in this whole adventure I’ve had any fear and I don’t like it. So my questions are thus: How in the world did my arm end up where it was? How does a short weakling like me get out to the end of the strut? At what point do you have to say ‘screw student/rental gear’ and gag out the money for your own gear? What little height I have isn’t in my torso so what are my options? Sorry to go on forever. Any help anyone can offer me is truly appreciated. If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.

Hi - I'm new here and new to the skies as well. On Saturday I had my first static line jump after 4 tandem jumps. Something went strangely wrong with my jump which resulted in me injuring myself. I've been 'Monday morning quarterbacking' myself since then and now, seeing as it's Wednesday, I need some other views on the situation. Since I'm new here, I don't know which forum to post my question in - I hope this is the right one. In case it isn't, I am not going to write up the whole long and drawn-out saga only to have to write it again. So... If someone wants to try to figure out what happened to me and this is the place to do it, please let me know and I will tell my sorry tale. I also have 'aftermath' pictures of the bruises. Thanks! If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll be happy to do it for you. **************************** Be like the cupcake and suck it up.