CURLING

Today was the day that I had my curling class. I've been super excited about going to this but as time was getting closer I started to get more nervous. I figured curling had to be harder than it looked on TV and I was right. 

But first I have to tell you why I was a little bit late. I was so excited I got in my new car, I backed it out of the garage, the garage door came down and went back up. I tried it again same thing happened came down and went back up. I checked the remote that wasn't it. I checked the garage machinery, that wasn't it. I checked the railings of the garage door, that wasn't it. Finally I looked very closely at the sensor, and there was a daddy long legs on the sensor. So he must have been going off and then going back on which caused the garage to go back up. Once I eradicated daddy long legs, the garage door closed. But now I was 8 minutes late. 

When I got there everybody was already in their groups and had already started the lesson. The instructor volunteer gave me one of those I'm disappointed in new looks because I didn't show up on time. I tried to explain but the class was moving forward. First thing we did was learn how to do the curling lunge. You put your foot on this little black wedge, you squat down putting your hands on one the curling Stone and the other a white thing that holds you up. Then you put your other foot on this footprint that is very slick. Realizing we're on ice the slick foot is super slippery so while you're in the squatting position with one foot on a wedge and the other foot on the slippery footprint, you put your hand on the stone and on the White thing and you use your foot in the wedge to push off into a lunge position. The other foot is supposed to sort of stay under you. When you get a few yards out you let go of the Stone and the stone slides down the "sheet" (the ice alley) were you stay in the lunge position. If you've ever seen curling you know what I'm talking about. 

I was in a group with a couple who both managed to do the lunge position Stone push. After two tries I was unable due to my knees being weak. So they gave me what's called a push stick to push the stone down the sheet. It worked well and I enjoyed pushing the stone. 

Then you have to learn how to "sweep" the ice. The sweeping is essential to keep the stone moving further down the sheet. When you watch the people sweeping on TV they look like they're just sweeping but it is harder than it looks. Not only do you have to sweep really hard, you also sweep while you are almost running alongside the stone. So you're moving fast while shuffling your feet (because you have to have your feet on the ice),  and leaning over sweeping furiously in front of the Stone. You can't touch the stone or that's a automatic disqualification of that stone. 

I found that I was a better sweeper than the person pushing the stone. That doesn't mean I was a good sweeper. I was just better at sweeping. 

Anyway at the end of the lesson we had a very quick tournament with another team and we won. I'm not that excited because it wasn't like we WON. We were just the least worse of the two teams. 

Overall it was a good time. I don't think I'm going to go again because they seem to want people to join their team and I don't want to join a curling team. I would do it again if it was just for fun. 

Until tomorrow...