Finding My Edge

The boys wanted no part of it. But my daughter was wide-eyed and enthusiastic as usual. Sometimes I love how she takes after me.  We got in line and to our surprise the half dozen people in front of us were passing on the two open seats and urging us to go ahead of them.

“Sure!” We said eagerly and hurried to sit down and get buckled in. It was a beautiful sunny day. The view from the edge of the cliff was spectacular.  For the first time I looked down and saw the 1300-foot drop. My stomach started to sink and I asked myself, “What the hell are you doing?” My hesitation, surely a sign of age.

In the next minute we were swinging over a cliff and looking down at the rocky landscape surrounding the barely visible Colorado River. The noises coming from my mouth were a cross between laughter and screams and my heart almost beat through the skin on my chest. When my feet where once again on the solid ground atop the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park I could feel the rush across my body start to subside. I either needed a nap or a cocktail.

I love that feeling. Fortunately I don’t need to be 1000 feet in the air to get a charge. While I do love a good thrill ride, what I’m really talking about is the rush I get from trying something new. I’m not one who enjoys sitting on the sidelines and watching others live. As I sit there wide-eyed watching someone on stage, on t-v or doing something spectacular like American Ninjas my husband looks at me, rolls his eyes and says, “I know, you want to do that”.

Life is too short to sit around. There is so much to see and do. In school I joined every club, team or show I could. In college a job slowed me down but I still managed to start a sorority, a college scholarship ball (with Sammy Davis Jr as our first guest) and learn to ski. My best friend had the idea to go to France for a semester for our language credit. Lack of funds was not a sufficient barrier. I got a job dealing black jack and was on my way even after my friend bailed on me.

When I had enough of museum tours in Paris I ditched the other students and went looking for a friend of a friend of a friend who lived on the outskirts of the city. She wasn’t home but I met a nice man on the le Metro who offered to take this young American visitor to Le Sulky horse races and then to dinner on the Champs-Elysees. Wow! That was just my first few days there. It’s amazing what can happen if you just say yes.

Once I graduated I was eager to take on the world behind a microphone and camera. Alone I drove my little Ford Festiva miles and miles north of Reno to Idaho Springs and south to Los Angles trying to get my foot in the door as a television reporter. I landed my first job somewhere I never heard of in East Texas far away from any friends or family. There I was thrown into election season where I found myself face to face with big, loud talking men wearing big hats. I didn’t know the issues but it was thrilling to find out. Within a week I had to learn how to produce several five-minute news segments and anchor the local cut-ins for the Today Show. The nerves eventually subsided and the daily grind of covering news events was the perfect job for a thrill seeker.

Here’s the secret about me, I rarely say no (more often now as I age… but still rarely). That’s how I find my edge. You never know where I might turn up. I see a posting on the Internet, a blurb in a paper or someone might mention an upcoming event and I think, why not. The next thing you know I’m at an underground SMBD show or teaching classes at a swingers club or meeting the organizer of Denver’s new morning fitness party, Kleen City and becoming its next Mistress of Ceremonies.

As you can imagine sometimes my adventurous spirit can get me in some sticky situations. But it’s all part of learning and growing and I hope I never stop. I tell my husband, without me your life would be boring.

Giant Canyon Swing at Glenwood Caverns in Glenwood Springs