Oh Go Jump off a Cliff

Saturday I was supposed to head to Wilmington to spend the day with a really hot man and some really awesome lighthouses. That got postponed however, due to hurricane Bill. No the hurricane did not make it even remotely close to shore, but that's what was so fantastic about him... he sent up gigantic swells off the coast of the Carolina's the likes of which most NC Surfers will never see again. Wrightsville beach, this according to said hot man, had waves cresting at 15ft early Saturday. On Tuesday we pretty much had decided to reschedule our activities for the following weekend, he said it was because he didn't think checking out the lighthouses in the rain would be much fun for me, he didn't want my camera to get ruined by the rain, and risk the possibility that the Ferry to Bald Head Island might get canceled and since I didn't have the money to come back the following weekend, it was best if we just rescheduled the entire event for the 29th. Really I know it's because he so badly wanted to surf those once in a life time waves and I think it's really sweet that he felt like he needed to tell me otherwise to "make me feel better". Honestly though, I totally understand the desire to surf that day, if I was better at it I would have gone down anyway so that I could experience it.

So instead off spending the day with one hot guy and several lighthouses, I spent the day with THREE hot guys, one amazing roommate, and a very large cliff. :-)

My roomie needed help cleaning her classroom (she works for a daycare) Saturday morning and being the amazingly awesome person I am (and so humble!) I helped her clean up the classroom so that she could come cliff jumping before she had to head off to a birthday party for one of her students. I'm glad that she was there to witness the events that I am about to tell you.On the way up to the Eno River Rock Quarry in Durham we were over taken by a huge storm, product of Bill I am sure, so we're driving along in gales of rain and I'm trying to call my friend Jason and find out if they're even still out there. No answer. Texted him, no answer. So we continued on our journey. When we got to the trail it was still raining a lovely cold rain and so we just decided to head out anyway and hike to the quarry. By the time we got to where the boys were it had stopped raining. YAY! Except that meant that the ground we had to run on was nice and muddy. Let me now tell you about this lovely cliff these fantastic guys decided we'd be jumping off of...
The image to the left is more what I pictured when I thought about cliff jumping, nice cliff face you can just jump right off of and hit the water. No worries at all.

Not at all what we got. The cliff we would be jumping off of looked a little more like this...
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The actual cliff is pictured below, you can barely see it from this shot but it's the brown area there in the middle of that picture.

Now that you have seen my lovely rendering of the profile of this cliff you will better be able to picture how things went. My friend Jason was the first in, he explained that you have to get a good running start to clear the end of the cliff that extends out at the bottom. So off he went, running then SPLASH! he hit the water. Nice. So Jordan was the next one in, she ran and SPLASH! She'd made it into the water. Next was Wran, followed by Corey, okay so all these guys are in now and so is my roommate, surely I could handle this. Another group had arrived before I took my turn and the two guys went ahead and jumped in making spectacular splashes as well, okay! I KNOW I can do this. Well the girl from the other group stood up at the top looking down talking about how scary it was and how she didn't think she could do it. I tried to talk her into just jumping, you go, then I'll go... we can do this! Everyone else did just fine!

The other girl stood there talking herself into it and I kept trying not to psych myself out, finally I decided the best way to go was to just DO IT. So I took off running, I suddenly felt my feet slide through the mud, instead of going with it and just using the motion to propel me out off the cliff my first instinct was to try and stop myself from sliding...BOY WAS THAT A STUPID IDEA! I fell. Down. A. 20. Foot. Cliff.

I remember being at the top and then dropping, JESUS CHRIST!, sliding, bumping, and a little splat as I fell into the water. Everyone was so terrified! The guys were screaming and swimming as fast as they could to me to make sure I was okay and bringing me floaties *I must add as a side note, it's quite nice to have three hot guys concerned for your well being* I felt fine, really! My butt hurt a lot and I could tell without being able to see that my arm was scratched up really good, but aside from that and all the dirt in my shorts I felt fine. There was a fishing hook caught in my hair that Jason pulled out for me and I think I may have scratched my hand on said hook in the process of falling. Anyway, I made it to the bottom with no desire to try again. There was a much shorter drop right next to it that I jumped off of, it's about 10 feet maybe and it was a straight drop down to the water. I went off that jump about 5 or 6 times...it really made up for missing the big jump, I can now say I have been cliff jumping.

The worst part was yet to come. When I got home and showered I looked at my rump, OUCH! I looked like I had been attacked by a panther! HUGE scratches all down my bum. Later that evening I looked again and WOW! My butt had turned a lovely shade of black with pretty purple hi-lights. The next morning I woke up in all kinds of pain. Whew! My body was suddenly rebelling against me... "HOW DARE YOU!"... "I'm so sorry body!" My ribs felt bruised, my spine hurt, and I could feel every bruise on my butt, legs and arms. Today things are feeling a little better but I did have a lot of trouble sleeping last night, luckily I have some left over muscle relaxers from my back trouble last year and taking two of those helped me at least be able to make it through the night.

The sad thing is, I'll probably go try again when it's not been raining. If I fall this time, I'll know never to try again.