The party went off very well. This is the first year since about first grade that the Son invited both boys and girls to his party. He insisted on doing AirSofting, which, for those who aren't familiar, is like a combo of paintball and BB guns, except the BB's are plastic, not metal. They recommend you wear long sleeves and long pants, 'cos the little suckers
sting like fire when they hit you. More on that later. I did try to talk him into something a wee bit more female friendly, like Laser Tag, but he was insistent.
We prepaid for twenty kids. He has a history of people not showing up for parties even when they've said they'd be there, so I kinda thought we were being a bit optimistic, but it could happen. I think we ended up with sixteen. HIs best friend, who is in college, four guys from his old school, and a bunch of his theater friends, who all attend other schools or are home-schooled. None of his friends from his current school showed up at all, and one of the ones from his old school we hadn't seen in over three years!
Since we were several people short of our reserved group size, the guys at the field talked Hubby and I into participating, too. I kept trying to excuse myself (I'd done two highly aerobic classes at the gym the previous two days, this was going to be my day off!), but the guy wheedled me into trying it.
The field is actually an old department store location, with plywood "structures" set up all around it to hide behind and work your way through. The game is kinda like "Capture the Flag," where each team starts out on one side of the field and tries to work their way to the other. The difference being, you're
shooting at the other team as you go, and they at you. If you get hit a certain number of times, you are then required to go to the "dead zone."
Everyone got issued masks and loaders and air rifles, we were split into teams, and sent out. The other team was pretty organized - they all wore cammo and had their own guns and had clearly played together before. We were - sorta pitiful.
One of the girls picked a barrier, ducked behind it, and stayed there the whole game. She looked like she was going to cry. The worst part was, so did her boyfriend. One of our team members we quickly labelled, "Most Likely Target." A. is 6'6" and has bright red hair. On top of that, he wore a hot pink Tee shirt. But he actually did pretty well. The two youngest girls we had along, both freshmen, took to it like ducks to water.
I did fairly well the first game. Got hit a few times early in it, but I'm almost sure it was by my own team, still learning their way around their equipment. You spend a lot of time squatting and ducking, since the structures are fairly low. Early in the game it's easy to find a position, but then the other team gets set up and puts their guns on "rapid fire," and it's easy to get pinned down. I ended up dead before the game ended.
Second game we switched sides, and I started out doing pretty well. Then I got hit. I had been hit, as I said, before, but this one got me in the right ring finger fingernail, Yowzers! Imagine, a pellet, even if it is plastic, going about twenty miles an hour and hitting you at the base of your nail. I retreated to the dead zone - and stayed there. It was turning black and blue as I watched. I'd been hit in the arms, in the legs and even the back of my head before, and was fine. This - not fine.
They blew the whistle, and I realized what time it was. I had ben planning on getting the kids stated and heading home to order the pizza and get the house all set up for them to come over, but it was now nearly time to finish up. They started a third session, but I headed out to pick up the chicken nugget tray and order the pizza to be delivered. I arrived home just as the pizza got there and so did the kids.
Everyone stayed until after eleven, but the ones who weren't eighteen yet have a midnight curfew for driving, so we hustled them all out of there so they wouldn't get in trouble. A few of the boys stayed to play video games until about two am and then spent the night.
This morning, my hubby was
very sore. Although I've been working out recently, he hasn't, and it hit him that he was no longer able to do something that active without some serious consequences afterward. It kinda frightened him. In the over twenty-five years I've known him, he has never had to work out, and until recently, has always been able to do "weekend warrior" type activities with little problem. It was scary to him to have done something that should have been pretty simple, and to hurt so much afterwards. I was able to convince him to come with me this morning, as the gym I've been doing the seven day trial at was giving away free six month memberships to the first fifty people who arrived today. We got there, were early enough, and he and I are both signed up now. I'm still going to continue to visit other gyms, but I do have this to fall back on for now, and he's going to start going along. Yay!