January 2011- After dating
for more than four years, he had finally asked, and I, of course,
had accepted. The big event had finally arrived. I prepared for my big
day, fussing over the details; what do I wear? Virginal white was out of
the question…. What about my hair? I walked down the mulched aisle lined
with Palmetto in the cool evening, thankful for the perfect south Florida
weather on this greatly anticipated night….to my first paintball experience.
I’d always wanted to try it, but was
banned from games played by all my guy friends back in college because I am
a girl. Grrrr. After looking over Maverick’s shoulder at his paintball
site, pictures, video, equipment, etc I found myself in a pair of cammo
pants (so baggy-did they make my butt look huge?) in the local paintball
park. I was finally going to play!! I got my gear, A tippmann 98 rental
edition something, I just know it was a gun, a skanky-looking chest protector and Mav’s
mask from home, and signed the waiver. Looking around I realized I was at
the elderly end of the age spectrum here at the ripe old age of 36. I said a
quick prayer-please God, don’t let me embarrass my boyfriend. Don’t let me
make a jackass of myself. And don’t let me do anything stupid.
I was impressed. I watched the
players for a few minutes, then we got the go ahead for my first game, um, a
“woods-ball course”. I realized I would mostly be shooting at
adolescents-AWESOME!!!! (I work in a public school with this age group). I
wondered if I could get my Principal to agree to a staff vs student game
sometime. Liabilities-BAH. Ref set us up, and it began. The rest of the
team gave a bunch of commands that made no sense (a mess of teenaged
Generals but no infantry) I had no clue what to do strategy-wise, so I
just ran for shelter. Instinct, or years of watching movies took over. I
kept low and kept moving up. I could barely see anything, my mask was so
fogged up. I found a fantastic spot to set up a sniper nest and started
raining Paint Hell on a structure where some of the kids were hiding . I
had no idea, but Mav used the opportunity to flank the kids in the two story
shelter and got six of them. I had survived my first game without being
shot!
It was getting late, but we had the
chance to play some Speedball-five of us against the field pro and a tweener
with a Godzilla-sized ego. Game was explained and we were off. Unbeknownst
to me, Mav was out, but not until after he took out our Justin Beiber
lookalike. I had no idea where the rest of the guys on my team were-I just
kept moving up the field-I tracked the "pro" by the arcs of
paint highlighted against the field lights in the night sky. oooo pretty ….I
ended up tagged in the arm by the "pro," but not until I had moved up about
80% of the field-taking him by surprise. My firing was what gave away my
position, I had no idea I was so close to him. The rest of the team was out
or filing for Homestead Exemption and picking out curtains back at the first
inflatables. Old Lady did pretty good apparently!
We played the Beiber two on one (at his
demand) for our last speedball. I moved up the field, took aim, and
accidentally shot Mav in the ankle as he charged the kid. Damn. Mav got the
kid first though…does that make me the winner?
So I didn’t embarrass Maverick or
myself. Paintball made its mark on me that January night (and um…I made my
mark on Maverick).
Mav
gave me my own mask and pretty blue gun for Valentine’s Day so….
to
be continued…..
