Jessica

LOL!! Well then, hell, *I* certainly better not try to figure out any eternal truths today.

Er...right. So anyway, STARS RULE! In fact, Dallas rules!!! My Mavs in the playoffs for the first time in 11 years! Two teams in the playoffs AT ONCE -- AND IN ONE ARENA!! Man, you can see the smoke comin off the roof of Reunion Arena because even though hockey's played on ice we are HOT HOT HOT!! Maybe I should do some work, she suddenly said, looking at the pile of papers that mysteriously accumulated while she was trash talking on an Internet forum.

I'm so sorry you have to witness the carnage. It must be very difficult for you.

Hey, PLF DORK-BOY!! Uh, YES, since you can't go any farther than the FINALS and that's where the Stars are going!! And then WINNING! And then we will do nasty things to the Stanley Cup! Such as lick it!! Let's make the bet a jump ticket! You can call my DZ with a credit card and have it deposited directly into my account!!

Welcome Billy Z! Y'all should come visit Skydive Dallas!!

MY ARSE THEY WILL!!!! Love, Jessica

Thanks girl! That's absolutely true. I shouldn't beat myself up for not being out there as much as I'd like. I have other responsibilities beyond the fun stuff I like to do. However, I DESERVE criticism for not having my A license yet. I've been skydiving for -- oh my god -- seven months. Oh, and by the way, I DID have a beer. It solved all my problems!!

I'll go first: POST-SEASON HOCKEY!!! Go Stars! Booya!

Hmm, I think your time grows with each license. D-licenses, for example, have 6 months, I believe. But yeah, check the SIM. You can read it if you have Adobe Acrobat off of the USPA site.

LOL!! Y'all are cracking me up. Hey, I'm committed to skydiving. I'll do what it takes to get back up in the air. What42, if you're off student status, but not A-licensed, you've got 30 days between skydives.

Can I vent for a moment? Skip this post if pathetic whining pisses you off. I am not current. This is the third, yes THIRD time I've let this happen, and I only started skydiving in September. It's not that I don't WANT to be jumping. I do, desperately. But I've had a lot of problems with my job, my um, "interpersonal relationships" and, of course, the weather. I'm so frustrated. I'm getting famous at my dropzone (or I would be, if I were ever there) for my chronic lack of currency. The S&TA and DZO are getting steadily more pissed off at me. Officially, I'm supposed to do an AFF L-4 or something like that, and that's way expensive. And jumping so infrequently is so unsafe. Argh. Plus my cypres is due for its 4-year check, and I don't want to jump without it. But I don't want to rent gear because rental gear doesn't fit me correctly. SIGH. Okay! Solutions: 1) Get signed off on packing so I'll have 60 days to lose currency

Oh my God! I had no idea they were this organized (organised?)!!!! http://www.standonguard.com

Kick ass!!

Hahahaha...I'm not sure what kind of body art you're talking about, but I feel the same about my tongue piercing. I'm pretty quiet and innocent-looking so it always takes people by surprise.

I've heard this too, but I've never had any kind of problem.

LOL!!

A hop and pop is the only time I've ever been in a situation where I might have NEEDED a cypres.

Hahaha...when I first quickly read the name of this thread, I thought you were talking about the SIM -- Skydivers Information Manual or whatever...and "games"? I thought maybe you were talking about drinking games...

I haven't seen any horrible accidents yet (knock wood) but I think the most scared I've been at the dz (other than my own malfunctions) was when a guy had two canopies out and landed out. It was a windy day, so I'd taken my truck and spent my time picking up jumpers who were landing way the hell off the dz. I'd just dropped a couple off at the back of the hangar, when suddenly everyone started shouting and pointing. The jumper disappeared over the horizon before we saw him land. "Get in that truck and get out there!" someone kept yelling at me. I was frozen. Finally, an instructor and another guy hopped in and told me to drive. "Are you a nurse or anything?" the guy in my passenger seat asked me as we tore over dirt roads. No. "Well..." he hesitated. "The thing with stuff like this is you don't know what you're going to find. With two out, you don't have any control. That guy could have landed in power lines, in a barbed-wire fence, on a tractor, anything. He could be in real bad shape." With a really slow rate of descent and a really fast forward speed, he was absolutely right. That guy was zooming over the ground. I sure I was going to see a dead guy. As it turned out, he was fine. It was a horseshoe mal and he didn't pull the cutaway before the reserve. Landed on his knees, muddied up his jumpsuit and that's it. But I'm actually considering getting some kind of emergency medical training -- even just CPR -- so I'm not wholly useless if I'm around when that kind of thing happens again.

I hadn't thought of it that way, but it makes perfect sense. On one of my AFF jumps, many moons ago, we were jammed into the Caravan, about to take off, when someone swooped terrifyingly close to the propeller. I was just starting out, and asked what the hell was going on (all the skydivers were peering out the window and saying, "That jackass!!") "That guy almost ate the prop," my instructor told me. He was apparently a very experienced skydiver and "knew better than that." Huh.

Hahahah do you have to ask?! Welcome to the fun! Jess

Today...today I want to be on a plane to anywhere. Preferably an overseas flight. I want to have a guidebook in my backpack, headphones on my ears, a happy mind full of giddy plans and anticipation. That's what I want.

Yeah, I absolutely agree. My dropzone has stuff remarkably like mine, though.

And when you're first starting out, you'll owe beer on every dang jump. "Hey Jess!! Was that your first landing in the peas?!" Er, yes. "BEER!!!!!" everyone in the hangar screams. "AND HEY!! Wasn't that your first 'industrial haze' jump?!" Well, um, yes... "BEEEEER!" everyone in the hangar screams. And so on.

Me too. I, too, won't jump without one. It eases the mind of the people I love and I don't ever want to need one and not have it.