#15 Paintball

On 2/20/10 my friends and I ventured out to play paintball arranged by friend Neal. Why I wanted to do this?? Something that inflicts pain? I'm not really sure.....it just sounded fun. Well, I actually had on the list "or laser tag", but my friend Neal saw Paintball and said..."I want to arrange it".....so I let him go for it!

We needed 10 people to play and only had 8 show (go Facebook events and the fall of people learning the value of what a RSVP really means). Which meant that either we had to forgo the game and forfeit Neals $100 deposit or pay for phantom people. Since the latter option was cheaper (and we could use their paintballs), we paid for phantom people and played 4 vs 4.

Most of us had never played paintball before, but we had Neal (the paintball geek) there all geared up in his paintball attire with his fancy automatic paintball guns to teach us the ropes. I had arrived wearing multiple layers of old clothing and padded bra's (yes plural!) as instructed. We then donned our masks and loaded our paintballs with orange paintball pellets.

The game was 4 against 4, with the goal to take out the other team. I was on Team with Neal trying to help us beat the other team. We did pretty well with the exception of some "friendly fire" where I got shot repeatedly in the back. We lost pretty badly that time. Eventually we played girls vs guys. The first game the guys played minus Neal and the girls kicked the boys butt---GIRLS ROCK!.......And one of the last games I have to say I was the last girl standing.

The pellets are marble size and if they break when they hit you from a long distance away they don't hurt too badly. BUT if they don't break OUCH.....and if you get shot at close range---OH, I thought I would die! I have to say that Neals automatic guns are so much fun to shoot!

I thought I survived the day with only had 4 bruises/purple marks on my body, but the total count ended up being 5 as another popped up a day or 2 after the event. The most painful bruises were from the paintballs that did not break and 2 were from the "friendly fire"!

At the end of the 3 hours we were tired, a little sweaty, bruised, covered in orange goo from head to toe (cause yes, when you get hit in the head it sticks in your hair). But it was super fun. Would I do it again? Sure.........just next time.......More padding!