Chutzpah at an all-time low

We are all friends and family here, right? Because right now, I feel like an idiot. You guys all know that I have skied the Feuz Bowl, repelled down buildings, tossed wrenches at bears, jumped off waterfalls and strapped myself into a jellybean of a boat and attacked big rapids. Right? My womanly chutzpah is at an OK level, is it not?

Today was the group outing (plus James). We went for a late breakfast and then had a tour of the City of David, which is outside the city walls but the actual site of the original "Jerusalem". Learned some cool things, and then the 15 of my research group plus about 15 others headed to the famous and still flowing water tunnel that diverted the spring to a big pool to ensure the city's water supply in ancient times.

Part of the tour is to wade through the cool running water of the twisty tunnel for forty minutes with flashlights as your only light source. Sounds great right? I was all gung-ho.

The tunnel was about two feet wide and about 7 feet tall at the start with a couple of stooping steps necessary. I headed into the tunnel just in front of James and behind him was a four hundred pound man whose girth spanned the entire width of the very narrow tunnel.

"I think someone in our group is might get stuck." James whispered in my ear as a joke. I was not impressed.

I could only really see six feet in front of me before the next turn and had the 20 odd members of our group in front of me. Behind me, the fat man was clapping loudly and yelling encouragements in the dark to the screaming girly members of his family behind him. I was stuck. No where to go. My heart started beating faster and faster and it was all I could do to keep from panicking. In essence, I freaked the heck right out. There was no way I was going to last forty seconds let alone forty minutes.

Luckily there was a spot to the let the fat man pass at his impossibly slow waddle and then I – in almost a blind panic – pushed past the screaming girls to get back to the entrance. I was almost in tears and breathing very heavily.

Forty minutes later, my research group emerged out the other side and realized, "Hey, where's Janet?" I was somewhat hoping that a rumour would spread that I was pregnant (pregnant people weren't allowed in) since that seemed less embarrassing than the truth. But James told them I was claustrophobic, and now my entire research group and my boss know I am an irrational wimp. I feel humiliated.