Mild Spoiler Alert
In Blind Date, Dekker takes Slade on an amazing first date. On a few occasions, I’ve been asked where that “date” came from. The answer is – my own experiences. Everything Dekker and Slade do on their first adventure together are things I’ve done with the love of my life.
For my birthday one year, my husband gave me the gift of indoor skydiving. I imagine this was because he knew I would absolutely never deliberately jump off a plane. For those of you who enjoy a little rush while still feeling relatively safe, indoor skydiving might be for you. We were dressed in flight suits and helmets to protect against bouncing into walls, because we would, and then put us through a class that showed us how to hold our bodies. Even the slightest tilt of a hand would send us spinning in an insane circle that can, and did, make me dizzy. We started in an airlock and they proceed to show all of us “how it’s done.” And it looked so easy. Until it was me.
I could hear the fan, how could you not hear a jet engine right below you, and see those ahead of me being pushed up into the air and spinning uncontrollably, but it wasn’t until I stepped out onto that net and the air flow hit me that I realized just how difficult it is. The instructors make it look simple and amazing and acrobatic, but keeping my body in that odd position so that I floated in a steady position was hard on my muscles. We got two flights that only lasted a few minutes each, which apparently is the equivalent to jumping out of a plane twice. Knowing that it only takes those few short minutes to fall from plane to ground will definitely keep my feet firmly planted on Earth. Having said that, it was a BLAST.
On another occasion, my husband took me to a Tibetan/Nepalese restaurant. The menu was extremely unusual and I ate my first ever yak. Sounds horrible. Tastes delicious. As I was writing the game show for Blind Date, and Dekker was getting the hots for Slade, I realized I had no idea what they would be doing together. I wanted something unique, something that they and my readers would never forget. Once I set the bar with the first date, I had to make sure all subsequent encounters were equally uncommon. I like to think I managed that, and I encourage you to try every single one, whether it be on your first date, or on the 100th while your children stand on the sidelines yelling that you’re crazy. So I say – inject a little adventure, a little adrenaline, a little change, and spice up your everyday.
