Viva Las Vegas

This afternoon I'm flying to Las Vegas with my best friends in celebration of my 23rd birthday! So excited! Stay tuned for photos!

My Life Rocks.

Sunshine + River Rafting + Best Friend + Family + Boyfriend + Pina Coladas + Birthday Cake + Vegas Cake + Picnic + Karaoke + Vegas Anticipation = One Amazing Weekend!

Check back for photos!

Boring!

Dear Blog Readers,

It has come to my attention after reading through my old blog entries that I tend to repeat myself quite often. I apologize for constantly writing about nothing besides travel, photos, airplanes, chocolate, and listing off the reasons why I'm happy. I'll make it my mission to be more creative and hopefully more interesting!

Yours truly,

Krysta

P.S. - Does anybody ACTUALLY read this anyways?

I'm Free Falling!

I previously posted this in my travel blog, but as summer approaches I'm planning another adventure. I thought I'd re-post this here and maybe I can inspire somebody else to give it a try! Skydiving is the most exhilarating, amazing thing you'll ever do!

While living in Cairns, I befriended a fellow backpacker by the name of Brad. Brad was from Camrose, Alberta, which is quite close to home, so we got along quite well simply talking about Tim Hortons and various other Canadian-ish things. On February 23, Brad was celebrating his 21st birthday. Seeing as how he was on the other side of the world, he was determined to make it his best birthday he'd experienced yet. As a big fan of birthdays and any excuse for celebration, I opted to help brainstorm ideas to make it an unforgettable day for my Camrose friend.
The night before the big day, we were both still clueless as to what to do.
Then it hit me.
"Let's go skydiving!", I said. I could hear the words coming from my mouth and I couldn't stop them. I think I was half joking, but I saw a glimmer of excitement wash across Brad's face and knew at that point, that there was no taking that sentence back.
I guess I just assumed that there would be no space for us... who tries booking skydiving with 12 hours notice? Tours fill up fast in Far North Queensland, I guess we would just be out of luck. I was never expecting the tour sales lady to say "Okay, everything is confirmed", and before I knew it, I was reaching for my credit card.
I'd just like to point out that I'm not brave. Not by a long shot. I'm scared of spiders, snakes, thunderstorms, the dark... even the Easter Bunny freaks me out. So to make the decision to jump out of a plane and fall through the sky, is very untypical of me. There we were, staring at our tour tickets, wondering how traveling to Australia was capable of making us do such crazy things. Clearly, we'd been getting too much sun.
Later that night, my friend Jake booked his jump as well, and the next morning the 3 of us woke up bright and early and hopped onto a bus bound for Mission Beach, 3 hours south of Cairns.
On our bus, we met our fellow daredevils for the day. 2 Koreans (One named David Beckham!) 2 guys and 1 girl from Vancouver. Everybody seemed so relaxed the entire ride, and I couldn't help but to wonder if we would all be returning to Cairns later that afternoon.
We finally arrived at beautiful Mission Beach, where I met my tandem partner, Sinno, and signed several forms to acknowledge that I was aware that "Skydiving is a dangerous sport that has the potential to result in death or serious injury". Our guides strapped us in to our harnesses and gave us directions for exiting the plane. I tried to listen, I really did, but I couldn't focus on anything at that point.
Jake went up in the first plane. I stood on the beach, taking pictures as he came closer and closer to the ground. When he landed, he rushed towards me, unable to communicate just how incredible the past 20 minutes had been, but trying his best to explain anyways.
And then, it was my turn.
We headed off to the airport, where Sinno told me we'd be second to jump. Birthday boy Brad was first up. We hopped into our tiny plane with our tandem partners and the eager Koreans, and took off. As we climbed in altitude, you could see the ground getting further and further away through the giant hole where a door would normally belong. As the first jumper, Brad got the pleasure of sitting beside the non-existent door and got paler with each second that passed.
I can't quite explain what was going through my mind at that point. I wasn't afraid, or excited... I think it was all too surreal to have just one emotion, so I just put on a brave face and gave a thumbs up to the camera.
When we reached 14,000 feet, it was cold and windy in the plane, and Sinno give me the signal to let me know it was time to go. I watched as Brad jumped, and it looked as though he'd just been vacuum sucked out the side of the plane. Immediately after him, we shuffled towards the door, I looked down, and it was at that moment that I changed my mind. I'm in a perfectly good airplane, why would I get out in the middle of the sky?! But it was too late. I felt myself as if in slow motion falling away from the plane. There I was, freefalling over the Great Barrier Reef.
It was incredible.
It didn't feel like falling. It really didn't t feel like much, besides an overwhelming rush of adrenaline and the wind blowing in my face. We were freefalling for an entire 60 seconds, falling 10,000 feet before Sinno pulled the parachute. I don't think I remembered to breathe the entire time, but it felt as though only 10 seconds had passed by. I breathed a sigh of relief that our parachute had been in good working order and that we were still alive, and tried to take it all in. I looked down in awe of the beautiful islands and reefs below us as we slowly floated back towards the Earth. I didn't want to land. I'd never felt such an amazing high in my life.
Sinno briefed me on how to land safely... stand up right away. As we approached the beach, we landed, I stood up, and immediately collapsed to my knees. I wasn't able to stand up yet, I was in a completely different state of mind and everything was a blur of excitement.
Brad and Jake met me on the beach and we all excitedly chattered about how amazing the feeling was, but we all knew that there was no describing it. It's just something you have to do.
We headed back to Cairns more giddy than we knew we were ever capable of being.
Skydiving is rumoured to be the best natural high that a person can experience, and it didn't wear off for the remainder of that day.
Mission accomplished.
Brad had the best birthday of his life, and I felt like if I could jump out of a plane, I was capable of doing absolutely anything in life.

High on Life

Life is so amazing right now. We are days away from the first day of summer! The sun is shining, I'm sporting a golden tan, and my weekends are filled with plans of floating down the river and lazing on the beach. I'm spending next week in Vegas with 2 of my best friends, staying in the amazing Bellagio hotel and celebrating my 23rd birthday at Cirque du Soleil! I've ditched the single life and each day is new and exciting as I realize how lucky I am to have found such a great guy. I get butterflies just thinking about kissing him.

Ladies and gentlemen, summer is here and it's going to be one amazing season. I couldn't ask for much more.

Halfway There.

Seeing as how it's now June (can you believe how incredibly fast 2009 is going?!) I wanted to sum up my year so far. I realize this probably isn't remotely interesting to you, but it's mostly for myself... I know come December I won't be able to pinpoint specific events and which month they occured. This is my little reminder.

2009 thus far:

January - Could life get any better?? I'm working in an HR department for a company I really enjoy. I spend a week in Mexico with my family in celebration of my mom's 40th birthday. Sadly, at the end of the month I'm laid off from my job as a result of the economic recession. That's all fine and dandy though, because at the end of the month I fly to Vancouver for an interview with Emirates Airline. This has been a dream job of mine for about 4 years!

February - The first 2 steps of the interview process went well, and I head back to Vancouver yet again for step 3. I'm nervous and convinced that the rest of the applicants are better for the position, but to my shock and satisfaction, I make it through for a final interview. Only 13 of the 250 who went on day one made it this far... go team!! I try not to get too excited, but secretly I'm dreaming of Dubai for the next few weeks. Meanwhile, I'm still unemployed and feeling the effects of the economy. Absolutely no job opportunities.

March -I'm starting to get a little bit worried about the unemployment situation. This is made worse by the fact that I recieve an email from Emirates informing me that all hiring has been put on hold for a period of 6-9 months. I knew it was coming, but I'd been in denial. I'm miserable and broke. Finally I land a job at an insurance agency. Things might work out.

April- My camera breaks and I invest in my very first DSLR. A significant event, as I'm obessed with photos these days. I work, sleep, take pictures, and go to the gym. I start fitness classes and can confidently sport a bikini.

May - I fly to Ontario to celebrate my Great Grandma's 80th birthday. Oh how I've missed airplanes, it's been 3 whole months! My best friend Kevin turns 22... we party. May Long Weekend comes along... we party, while our campsite is covered in snow. I'm offered permanent employment at the insurance agency, and while it's a far cry from aviation, I'm relieved to have a job, and a good one at that.

June - It's only day 3, but I've managed to find myself a boy who puts up with my insanity and general lack of common sense. It's nice to kiss somebody after such a long break from the dating game. June may just shape up to be amazing.

Crazy, Chaotic, Confusing... and Perfect.

I hate to be one of those girls who gets all excited and blogs about the new boy in her life, because honestly, who likes to read that crap? That said, after 3 years as a single lady, I think I have the right to at least be a teensy bit giddy. It's not like I force you to read it.

I met said boy about 2 1/2 years ago. Since then we've became quite close friends. That was all fine and dandy for quite awhile, but somehow in the past few months we've marched right across that line that separates "Just friends" from "Something more". This led to many arguments, confusing conversations... we even wrote lists stating the reasons we should never date. Sometimes, you don't have a choice in the matter. Occasionally, you have to ignore what your head tells you and listen to your heart... a difficult task for both of us. With a bit of hesitation and a lot of excitment, we've jumped off the deep end and are praying that we stay afloat. I see fun times in the near future.

Sorry gentlemen (please don't stop reading my blog as a result!)... but I'm off the market.

June!!!!

I always get ridiculously excited when we hit the month of June. Since I was a little girl, it's been (in my opinion) the absolute best month of the year. I have reasons behind my logic:

1. Summer begins on June 21st. The best season of the year. Finally.

2. When I was a student, June marked the end of school. How can you beat that?!

3. My birthday is June 24th. Sure, this is getting to be less anticipated with each year, but I still love having cake with my name on it. Mmm, cake.

4. Camping. And I'm not talking May Long weekend, snowing on your tent kind of camping. Real camping, warm and such.

5. Vegas. I've never been before, but this year I'm flying off in celebration of my 23rd birthday. Heck yes.

Yes, it's going to be a great month indeed. Happy June everybody!