you did what? that is AWESOME!!!

According to my 18 year old brother I am officially awesome.  How did I suddenly become awesome in his eyes?  Was it that he finally realized I am smart, responsible, have great taste in music, movies, and TV?  Or maybe he finally appreciates my lame attempts at humor or even my willingness to complete his homework. 

Oh yeah, all it took was me going paintballing. 

This is an activity that I am rather ambivalent about.  I definitely see the appeal of this "sport" for teenage boys and actually think it is a better use of their time than throwing ping pong balls at each other or other forms of torture that they come up with.   That being said, I will further describe my experience on Saturday and you will better understand my ambivalence towards this activity. 

I signed up to go about a month ago to help a friend celebrate her birthday.  I am not quite sure why I signed up.  I think I was on a kick about being more social and trying new and different things.  By the time Saturday morning rolled around I was ready to kick myself for signing up and paying for something so not me.  I am not a fan of guns (and not for any reasons that are logical, I just have a really hard time aiming and I hate missing the target), I hate activities that involve pain (though I think I inflicted far more bruises from any basketball game or aches from snowboarding than I did from these little paintballs), I don't like foreign objects flying at me at an average speed of 200 miles with only a distance of 8 to 20 feet, and I hate wearing masks that have touched someone else's sweaty face.  Anyway...

Round 1.  Barely survived and was ready to quit. I got hit in the gut (where at least I have a lot of natural padding) it hurt, but I survived and the paintball didn't even break.  Then I got hit in the back of the neck, OWWWWW and other expletives, it was all I could do not to cry.  It still hurts for my hair to touch that part of my neck.  I hated it it and was so happy to leave the playing field.  Now this is where my stubbornness/competitiveness comes into play.  I can't just quit after one round, especially a round we just lost.

Round 2.  We killed the other team, I got sheer satisfaction for shooting one of my friends who was advancing into my safety zone.  Eventually I got hit (in the arm and just a little sting) but our team still one.  I decided it was a great time for me to quit.

All in all , I don't hate the activity, but I don't know that it is something I would do very often. 

sorry no pics in my crazy get-up (meaning the ugly mask)