Curling!

So I went curling on Sunday evening. For those unfamiliar with it, please go here. For those who want a more entertaining explanation, please rent this.

Anyway. Andy loves curling, he thinks it's the greatest sport ever, partially out of how ridiculous it is. He watches it every Olympics and on more than one occassion, has mentioned his love for it. Well in my weekly Gold Star email of events in the area, it included a link to a $5 introduction to curling course. I proposed the idea as part of his birthday present and off we went. First of all, it is way harder than it looks but SO MUCH FUN!! It's like shuffleboard or bocci ball, but on ICE. The balance was the hardest think to master. When you're the one throwing (that's not the right word...) the stone, you have to slide forward on one foot and they specifically give you a super slippy thing to put on the bottom of your shoe so that you slide out as far as you can. So learning to stay upright was the first task. Once we mastered the rocks, I had to master the broom. Let me tell you that I almost ate it like 5 times running alongside the rock trying to sweep as fast as I could. You're running on ice in tennis shoes!

Anyway so once we did all of the practice rounds we actually played another team and I got hooked. Andy was really good at it and even scored twice! I'm apparently useful in terms of "clearing out" the opposing stones because I have a tendency to overshoot the target and blast everything out of my way. I guess I have a little too much power? Oops...So we played a few games and it was a ton of fun. We were on a team with another couple named Kamber and Pahl. Interesting names for two people who looked straight out of Kansas. They were really really nice and I totally had a blast with them. We even talked to them about maybe forming a team for the curling league that starts at the end of the month.

So at the end of the night there was a raffle and I totally won a free membership to the curling club! So that was neat, but it would still be $180 to join the league. Apparently renting out the rink is really expensive on a weekly basis. But I digress. They're doing two basic curling clinics on the next two Sundays and I think Andy and I will probably go to another one. It's $15 on Sunday nights at the ice rink in Van Nuys if anyone wants to come...

www.hollywoodcurling.com is the website I do believe.

Anyway, it's now two days later and I am sore as shit. I don't know about other people but I'm always more sore two days after I exercise than the day after. So my shoulder and arms are sore from sweeping really fast and my quads are friggin killing me from the whole pushing and stretching and sliding aspect. Every time I cross my legs my quads go "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH". Like that screaming hot dog from Wienerschnitzel.

Anyway, so that's my tale of curling. I highly enjoyed when I told BMG I was taking curling lessons and she said "Is that a euphemism? Who takes curling lessons?". Well done good lady. Well done. Andy took pictures so whenever I upload them you can see my bitchin' form for yourself. Our instructor told me I have good form, so maybe if I dive in and work hard I can go to the Olympics! Ah...to dream big. You can all touch my medal once I win. And that IS a euphemism. Zing!