Beware...Orange Hair!

Don't Try This At Home!

No...I didn't accidentally dye my hair orange, however, it would make for a good post!

This past weekend I harnessed my adventurous spirit and tried a new sport (guess you can call it that)...haha. I awoke super early on Saturday morning (much to my dismay) and found myself headed about an hour outside of Chi with some friends and strangers to go battle it out at the Realms of Ruin!

That's right...my first foray into the little known world of Paintball. I had been wanting to embrace this activity since the days of High School, but never really got around to it. And now that it was upon me I wasn't quite sure what I had gotten myself into. I mean, running around in the woods def sounded fun enough, but getting hit with high speed balls of paint, well that's another story. It didn't help that the day before I left gobs of people were preparing me for the worst, "wear layers," "it hurts," "you'll definitely get bruises and whelps," and it kinda got to me. But being the Ardent Adventurer, I was not going to let a little fear keep me away.

So, Friday night I set out to find some camo because heck...if I turned out to not be good (wild thought I know), I was at least going to look the part! First attempt: 25 min bus ride in the rain to a random area north of the city to the Army Surplus Store (go big or go home, right?). Upon arrival, I noticed it was a little dark and there were bars all over the windows and doors (great sign right)...Confused, I slowly made my way over to the entrance and realized that it was indeed closed. Ugh..the nerve. Now what was a girl to do? Plan B: Salvation Army - Luckily, I was accompanied by my handy iphone, love of my life, who diligently guided me to my next destination, which by the time I walked the 2 miles there was inevitably closed as well...this is not looking good. I was wet, starved and just wanted to find some stupid pants!

Defeated, I started walking south back toward downtown. Minutes later I passed by a little place called Plato's Closet (a consignment shop) and I'm not sure if it was intuition, luck or God that made me stop and just check it out. Literally, the first aisle I came to had army green cargo pants that were the perfect size! I walked out of there with $10 poorer, but with my head held high and green pants in tow.

$10 pants = good investment!

Now...on to the good stuff. Our group of about 20 had arranged for a full day's worth of playing private games - THANK GOD! Why? Well, the groups we ran into there were seriously hard core. They had spikes coming off their masks and all these extra belts and ammo and crazy guns. Seriously..i think they were off duty army dudes. I wouldn't have set foot on a playing field with them for fear of losing it, haha!

After getting all decked out with the Darth Vader masks, guns and paintballs we were set. Split into teams and positioned on opposite sides of the field. My heart raced as we awaited the signal that the game was starting. Seconds later we were off, running through trenches, hiding behind barrels and trees, crawling through brush and scoping out our opponents. It was a rush! Paint was flying, winning was on the line and I started firing. What surprised me the most was just how "into it" you can get. It's like you just switch modes and shooting at people seems completely normal, haha. Kinda scary too.

My first game my goal was to not be the first one out, haha...which turned out to be easier than I had imagined. I stayed in fairly long and took a paintball to the head. Not too shabby for a first hit! It definitely helped diminish my fear of the pain associated with getting hit...really it wasn't that bad! Little did I know that this same hit would provide me with a whole new do (hair that is). Apparently, I wear orange well - or everyone was lying. I proceeded to get hit in the same exact spot later in the day as well as the hand and shoulder amongst others. But nothing I couldn't "walk off".


A very fun day to say the least. I picked up a new sport, made some good friends and got to try out a new hair color. What more could a girl ask for? Already thinking about what adventure sport I should try next...any suggestions?