My friend Kim was getting ready to celebrate her. When I asked her what she wanted to do, she informed me that we needed to do something special because it was her 40th! “Let’s spend the day that spa! We can get a massages or facials.” What a great idea  - except I don’t like people to touch me! But it was her birthday, so I agreed to go with her to get facials. I called and made appointments for the two of us. Afterward, she would go out to a nice romantic dinner with her husband, Frank.

In the meantime, Frank decided that he wanted to have a surprise party to celebrate. He contacted me to discuss the options. “It’d be really cool if we went out to dinner, and then people started to trickle in – as if by coincidence.” I told him I’d call the restaurant to see if it would work. Our Schedule: Facial...dinner...surprise. Simple. I got it.

I called her favorite restaurant to discover that they did not take reservations. Since her birthday was on a Saturday, it would be nearly impossible for all of us to obtain seating as planned. I called her husband to give him this news. After many secret emails, we decided to have a surprise party.

Several days later, Kim called me,“I know what we can do for my birthday! Let’s get a group of people together and go to see Flip Orley (the hypnotist/comedian). He’s great!” She wanted to go on her actual birthday, but that would mess up the surprise party. I suggested that we go the night before her birthday because I wasn’t sure if my husband would be able to do it on her actual birthday. New schedule: Friday night – hypnotist – Saturday afternoon – facials – Saturday night - surprise party (of course she still thought they’d be going to dinner).

At some point, she added Scooby Doo 2 into the mix – a Sunday matinee.  Since we both had kids, this would be a fun activity for them.   I’m still thinking that we can pull it all off – a birthday weekend. How cool!

The next call was the one that changed my life. “I know what I really want to do for my birthday.” I’m thinking...what now? What else could there possibly be? “Let’s go skydiving!” Skydiving???? My initial reaction was to say “No way!” But,  it was something on my "someday" list. After some research regarding tandem skydiving, I determined that was pretty safe. Still a little scary...but statistically, it is safer than driving a car. I agreed to go SKYDIVING!

Our next step was finding the right place. Thank god for the Internet! Can you imagine how much work it would be to find things if we had to go back to using directory assistance. I researched the various skydiving facilities in the Washington, DC area. Kim had heard about Skydive Orange on the radio and I checked them out first. I also checked out a smaller drop zone in Pennsylvania, and one located in Delaware. The drop zone in PA didn’t have enough staff to accommodate our group. Delmarva was about 30 minutes further from our homes. So, we decided to go to Orange.

After I canceled the appointment for our facials, I called and made reservations at Skydive Orange. Our appointments were at 2:00 PM.  I figured that would give us enough time to skydive and get back home in time for the surprise party.  Frank and I enlisted some friends to help get things ready.  When I mentioned that we were going skydiving to my friends and family, only one person expressed an interested in going – my cousin’s husband – Joe.  You could see the excitement in his face!