Captain's Blog: At least I'd get a purple heart

Our friend Erin decided that for her birthday she wanted to get a group together and go paintballing, and we were all on board. We arrived and were escorted to the waiting area to receive our guns and masks, then given instructions how the game will be played. I felt unsure of what to expect at this point so our group decided to walk around to the side of the arena where you could see inside to the game being played. The referee inside signaled to start the game and then all you could hear is continuous shooting from the paintball guns and the loud bam as it hits the walls and barricades and see this large group of boys running for cover and trying to shoot their opponent. Now I'm nervous. I stand there in awe and I think how in the world am I going to get out of this.

Well our group is called and we enter into the arena, we are split into two teams and sent to opposite sides of the playing field. I tried to figure out a place to run and hide as soon as the game starts and plan some sort of strategy and before I know it the ref yells go and we scramble to find a place to hide while rapidly shooting. It was funny how in my brain a switch flipped and all the sudden it was kill or be killed. And of course I was killed, I don't think I even got 5 or 10 shots off before I was blasted by paintballs. I wasn't sure what it was going to feel like to be shot but when I did I knew that I didn't like it. I raised my hands to signal my death and quickly retreated to the far side behind the net, not before I was pelted in the head with a paintball. This went on for a while until either everyone was dead or no one was shooting anymore. We did a couple more rounds and I did not get any better as the games went on, I was shot in the head again, in the palm as I surrendered because my gun ran out of air, in the back, arm, ribs and then right in the face. When I was hit in the face the paint went through the vents and into my mouth on on my face. It tasted discusting! I was really glad when we all decided we were done for the day.

We went back to Erin's and had pizza and retold stories of battle, I would not be a good soilder; don't put me on the front lines. It felt like I was in the movie Saving Private Ryan and I was one of the soilders who didn't even make it off the boat to the shore.

Rafe and I preparing for Battle

Lacey demonstrating what will happen to me, and she was pretty much right. Erin the birthday girl is in the middle, we all blame her for the great time we had.