Paintball Lovin'

Or lack there of, I should say. I was invited to go play paintball with a group of friends the other day. I thought it would be an adventure, an experience I could proudly tell others that I had participated in but, alas, it was torture. My sister warned me against it, she told me it was going to be super painful but I refused to listen to her. Sure, I was frightened but I figured it couldn't possibly hurt that bad. And so we went to the paintball place and I started getting a little freaked out by all the noise.

BAM BAM BAM

I heard that and I was like "Oh, crap. Are those the gun shots? Oh, crap. I want to go home" because something makes that much noise surely must be painful.

This picture of Tania perfectly embodies what I was feeling in that moment.
Those gun shots did not make anything sound fun. I lost whatever [little] enthusiasm I had in that moment. But then, of course, everyone started calling me a wuss and I was peer pressured into paying $26 for torture.

Yes, my dear friends, I caved.

And so they took us into the paintball arena (gymnasium? I don't know what its called) and I was like hmmmmm. Ok, this might actually be fun. And so we divide into teams and I walk happily away with my BFF, Tania, to stand on our end of the room. Then the whistle blows signaling the start of the game and she and I run to the closest obstacle thing to hide behind. And after a while I started getting confident and I was like "Tania, lets try to get closer" so that we can maybe shoot someone on the other team. So we run to a closer obstacle thing and that's when everything went wrong. First, I was shot on my finger. Which hurt like a MOTHER. Then, I was shot in the arm (which means I was out) So I get up to run against the shieldy thingy where you go when you are out but BEFORE I can raise my hands up in surrender the other team starts going berserk on me and kept shooting me and I couldn't raise my gun over my head because I was trying to cover my body with my hands (completely irrational, I know) and I was in so much pain and they wouldn't stop and I wanted to die....ok, you get the point. It was painful. I got shot 5 times in my legs, once in my arm and the last one on my BUTT. Keep in mind that my finger is still throbbing AND bleeding. So by the time I'm FINALLY safe, I just want to cry.

When they blow the whistle to say that it's over, they tell me we still have other rounds. I was like WHAT???? We have to keep going???? I begged for a break and I went straight to the bathroom to cry. CRY. I cry all the time, but rarely from pain. It hurt THAT bad.

I have, like, 6 bruises all over my body from paint ball. Here is one of my worst ones:
BTW that bruise has a diameter of 3 inches. It's HUGE.

After I was done crying, I come out and decided to NEVER do that again.

But you know what they say, NEVER say never.

Because [yet again] I was peer pressured to go in for another round. Thankfully, I was only ever shot on the mask [which doesn't hurt at all] after my first brutal experience, and I learned to raise my gun when I was going to the out zone so I was never brutally attacked again. But, I'll be honest, I did not have fun. I was much too afraid for the well being of my body.

Ok ok, it wasn't thaaaaaaaat bad. Well, the paintball part was, but I love my friends, and they made the experience (semi) worth it.We talked for hours, laughed at each others developing bruises, and celebrated our pain by going out to eat at Village Inn afterwards.
I mean, look how cute we are. We are so adorable, who wouldn't want to suffer through the abuse of paintball to hang out with these lovelies???

Yes, in a way it was sort of worth it because I have good friends who are awesome and fun to be around. Yet, my legs are still in pain and my bruises are itchy. Do you know how difficult it is to gently scratch a bruised area? Well, let me tell you, it's pretty much IMPOSSIBLE.

Anywho, at least I can say I have done it and now I don't ever have to do it again.

Never.

;)
Eli

PS. Oh crap, never say never....
PPS. Pictures courtesy of Tani-poo.