L ately, there has been a part of me that wants to do things I have never done before. Like wanting to go sky diving, para-sailing, rafting, and the list goes on and on. People who know me really well have been perplexed. "What’s wrong with you? Go sky diving and what if….?" Yeah, what if I never make it back in one piece? Precisely, say my friends. And everyone is convinced that I am going through a mid-life crisis.

And so today, I took that bold "first step." Planned to go rafting down the Hooch with a few of my friends. And like a teenager in love, I just could not sleep last night. I tossed and turned in bed waiting for the sun to rise so I could go rafting. My first glimpse out of the window made my heart sink. Oops, Gustav had landed in Louisiana and was making its presence felt here too… what with a very, very cloudy sky and a few drops of rain. "Oh no," I said to myself! I couldn’t have chosen a worse weekend to do this! What was I thinking? Did I not foresee that Gustav was well on its way and that its effects would be felt here too? I prayed hard. Called the local rafting company right away only to get a monotonous message that I had reached the "after hours" line and needed to call back later. And if I thought it was emergency, to call 911. Emergency, it was, for me .

Anyways, I decided to go ahead with my plans and see what happened. Had a quick shower and looked at my phone/email messages. None from my friends who were my fellow adventurers in this endeavor. Good, that meant we were still on. Then I hurried to the meeting place. No one in sight. Good grief! Had my pals forgotten? A quick buzz later I was told they were on their way. God is good, huh?

My pals showed up, albeit, a little late. Apparently, I was the one who was most excited! We hurried to the river and after checking our reservations, were soon by the raft. An old man gave us some instructions, threw us some life jackets and oars, and we were all set! We should be at our destination ( 6 miles in all) in about two hours. Boy was he wrong…

We jumped into the raft and struggled to set it going. What a great start, huh? Not to worry, it would get better, I thought to myself. The first hour passed swiftly as everyone chatted animatedly, took pictures, and were already deciding as to when our next trip would be. And then, all hell broke loose. We hit some rocky spots, and phew , the next thing we knew, one of my friends was in the water! There was also a mild current and she was lagging behind. "Hurry up!" we screamed and thank God, she made it, in the nick of time. Boy, was she mad or what! Her oar went missing and her hairdo a big mess! God forbid, anything happens to her hair, then she is painful to be with. Yeah, really. But a few minutes later, me and my other friend were rowing the raft while the "injured one" began taking it easy because she had been wronged . Yeah, right , I thought!

The next few hours were quite miserable. No food, no water. Who knew the two hours would seem to be two days? As we rafted along, we saw some happy faces on the banks enjoying a barbeque party on this Labor Day. Barbeque had never smelled so good! I was hoping they would toss some food at us, but of course nothing like this happened. This was real life, remember?

Our arms were hurting by then. We were into our third and soon, fourth hour. No cell phones with us. Surely, my hubby must have thought I was abducted. Maybe he was hoping he would have a "reward" for not turning me back in! Who knows! We were tired, hungry and quite frankly cranky by then. And by then all of us had taken turns falling in the water (thank God , it was not deep and there were no sightings of alligators today) and were looking quite silly.

Finally, we made it back… in four and a half hours. Tired, sore, and hungry. I called home quickly to say, too bad, they weren’t that lucky yet. I was still alive!

At the end of the day, I must add it was an eventful day. I can now proudly say that I have gone rafting.Checked off one item from my"bucket list"To some of you, it may not be a big thing. To me, it was. Maybe, I am going through a mid-life crisis. Will I do it again? You betcha, I will! I sure will turn this mid-life crisis thing to a real-life hobby.