Sunday, January 25, 2009

Dialog In The Dark...WOW!

Preface #1:  In the Orient it is the year of the Ox.  But on Planet Katherine...it is the year of EXPERIENCES!  That being said I have decided that for MY birthday I want to have EXPERIENCES with friends and loved ones, rather than receive gifts (...if you insist you may give me a gift too!)  And whenever possible I will treat those WITH birthdays to an experience as well.  The sad part comes for those that are far far away on Judea's plain...but I will work on something extra special for you.

Preface #2: I am not usually a fan of blog posts that just go on and on about an experience, but  without photos, however because of the subject of this post, I will only post one photo...at the end.

This past week was my good friend Susan's birthday.  We both have a lot going on during the week so we decided we would celebrate on Saturday.  I had a hard time thinking of something we could "experience" together, but then one night I was talking to Levi and asked him if he could get us into Dialog In The Dark.  I wasn't sure if it would be possible, but when he said he could I was THRILLED.  

I invited our friend Jessa along for the "experience" and we managed to keep it a complete secret from Susan until literally about 15 minutes before we got there.  We were all so excited and a little nervous too.  Our tickets were at Will Call, just like Levi arranged and our group was small, only 6 of us + Peter...our guide.

Now, for those of you that don't know what Dialog In The Dark is, just click on the link and take five seconds to read all about it...

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OK, are you back?  Excellent...now you understand!

So...off we went, on our own visually impaired experience, it was truly amazing!  And just in case you are wondering, when they say "complete darkness" they really mean COMPLETE darkness.  

Everyone has their own cane and you start out in a room sitting on these lighted cubes and while the first instructions are given the cubes start to get dim until eventually the room is pitch black! Then your guide introduces himself and starts to explain what happens next.

I don't want to spoil it for anyone that will venture out for their own experience (and you ALL should!) but I will say this, being the first one to walk into the first room I literally wanted to get on my knees and thank my Heavenly Father for my sight the moment I was away from my no longer lit box.  

You get to go through a few different environments and touch, smell and hear everything as you would if you were blind.  I would say "visually impaired", but this was truly an experience being completely blind...no light!  

My other senses were almost instantly heightened and I started to appreciate more and more the fact that I could hear, smell and touch.  There were no lights...none.  And although Peter (who was an amazing guide) was there with us the entire time, I started to get very frustrated toward the end.  At one point we were sitting in a cafe and I knew there were people across from me...I could hear them, but I was feeling so frustrated that I couldn't see them.  And when other groups came into the cafe it got noisier and I got more and more frustrated because I had a harder and harder time hearing Peter, Paul, Laura, Peggy, Jessa & Susan (yeah, you get to know your group by name very quickly and you even start to notice their touch as you walk and stumble together).

Peter even suggested that the next time we are sitting in a busy restaurant we just close our eyes for a moment.  I'm not sure how quickly I will try this, since as I sat at the cafe I wanted to run over and flip the light switch so badly I could hardly stand it...and there WAS NO LIGHT SWITCH TO FLIP!

Eventually we walked out and we got to literally "see" Peter, but he couldn't "see" us...it was such an indescribable experience, one I will never forget.

Jessa, Susan and I really had an amazing experience in the dark. 
Thank you Levi!

Katherine (me), Jessa & Susan
...after our Dialog In The Dark experience


Who's up next for their very own experience?!


Paige...we missed you, but sure enjoyed meeting you & Amelia for lunch at Sweet Tomatoes!

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