Last night a friend picked me up and did not tell me where we were going.  She had planned an outing for us to celebrate my birthday.  I truly had no idea what she was doing.  We landed not too far from home, but a world away from anything I had done before.  Actually she had never done it either!  We were going to float.  I had never heard of it and was intrigued.  My friend disclosed that she was a little nervous.

I entered a private room, notably called, “The Princess Room”.  I undressed, showered in the dark (with a shower head that displayed multiple colors of lights, and got into a salt water tank.  I kept the lights on at first, but then decided to try the “total darkness” option.  Because of all the salt, you float in about four inches of water.  It is dark and completely silent, so you lose track of time and frankly don’t even feel your body.  I did this for one and a half hours and at first, I really wondered how I was going to last that long doing “nothing”.

The weightlessness is amazing.  You really do not feel your body.  I closed my eyes and just drifted.  I will say that it would have been PERFECT if the room was ten degrees warmer.  The water was 93.7 degrees and that was fine, but any body part not in the water felt just a little too cool for me.

Interestingly enough, my friend did not enjoy it and actually ended her session early.  It was probably one of the most thoughtful birthday gifts I have received.  It really forced me to try something new (which I do believe I am pretty good at, but this definitely took it up a notch).  I have decided that for the next 365 days I am going to try or to do or to learn something new.  It could be something tiny or something really “out there”.  This experience was the perfect way to kick it off.  Today, I ran a totally new route.  Day one, check that “new” thing done!