A picture is worth a thousand words?

Or at least, is indicative of a full minute-plus of non-stop screaming:
(click to embiggen)

So, this is me, outside of a plane at 12,000 feet, with my instructor Adi strapped to my back (Look Ma, no hands), screaming my brains out in free fall. This lasted for about a minute, and when we've reached, you know, 120mph DOWN, he pulled the cord and opened our parachute and that slow delicious descent lasted another 10 minutes or so.

I just might call these the best 11 minutes of my life so far. It was INCREDIBLE.

All day yesterday in my head I was likening skydiving to losing your virginity: you're back in the regular world and everyone is treating you the same and talking to you about mundane stuff, but you feel like they should be able to TELL, to SEE IT, that you're DIFFERENT, because of what you did yesterday, but they can't - you don't look different, you've just had this experience and you will never ever forget it.

I did this on my 24-hour break from camp, which is to say that I jumped out of a plane at approximately 3pm and by 8pm the same day I was back at work, running a dance session for 400 people and announcing when it was time for the little ones to meet their counselors and go to bed. Bizarre. 10 days left!

http://www.skydiveperris.com/ <---Highly recommended!