Don't Shoot the Ceiling!

My birthday is this week (the 16^th to be exact if you’d like to send me a ridiculously expensive gift!).  To celebrate, one of my wonderful friends and her boyfriend took Mr. C and I to the shooting range for the first time.  I’ve never shot a gun before and for some reason had the urge to do it sometime during my lifetime.  I didn’t really want to go to a class (because I’m a wimp and didn’t want witnesses to that) so I figured it would be awhile.  Imagine my surprise when my friend tells me that she’s gone before and would take me (this girl is quite talented – she told me about 5 minutes later that she crochets too.  Shoots and crochets, what a catch! Lol!)!  So, that became my birthday request.  Weirdest gift ever but one I asked for!  Luckily, this friend knows about my fears of about EVERYTHING and how dramatic I can be so I was excited that she was the one taking me and therefore would understand when I acted scared and dramatic!

I couldn’t believe how loud it was at the range, even with ear plugs and my super sexy ear muff thingies.  The floor seemed to shake with each shot.  That was pretty cool because it matched my shakey hands!  Of course I understood that asking to be taken to the shooting range would constitute me actually shooting but when we got there I suddenly wanted to “just watch”!  Of course, my friend wasn’t having any of that!  She seems to be good at making me forget my fears temporarily.  Of course, when I go home and start thinking about the scary movie she made me watch with her, the fear always comes back! 

Before I tell you how that went, let me share another story with you.  Don’t you love this – the way I can just stop in the middle of a story to go off on a random tangent?  Mr. C has to deal with this ALL the time.  Just be grateful that you only get this sometimes!  Ok sorry, back to the story.  When I was around twelve or thirteen I began trying out/practicing for the town’s fast pitch softball team.  You should know up front that I have never been a person who was good at or even really enjoyed sports.  Most likely this is due to my lack of coordination. Or perhaps my lack of coordination is due to my lack of participation in sports?  Either way -  sports + Mrs. Centner = bad outcome.  It was winter which meant that I had to practice inside.  I met one of the trainers a few times a week to practice pitching.  I’m sure he hated the days that I showed up.  We practiced in a hallway with nothing between us but one light bulb and a lot of space.  Somehow I managed to hit that light bulb every single time.  I wonder how much they spent on bulbs that winter.   When springtime rolled around, we found out that they could only keep 1 of the 3 pitchers.  I’ll let you guess who the first one cut was.

So, now we’re back at the shooting range.  Before paying we had to read over and sign a statement saying we understood the rules, etc.  The rules detailed many things but included that shooters should not be shooting the floor or ceiling.  Fines would be assessed in these cases.  Now, knowing my past history (see my random story DOES fit in!), I was terrified that I was going to shoot the ceiling.  Then I imagined the guy in charge would rush in, drag me out, and fine me!  I didn’t have much time to worry about this though because after “just watching” for a few minutes, my friend gave the look that meant I better stop being a baby so I decided it was time.  After asking about ten times if I was good to go, I finally shot.  Holy cow, it was loud and had a little more kick than I had expected.  I’m not going to say that I was good but I did manage to hit the paper thingie that was meant to be shot!  I was just so happy that I hadn’t shot the floor, ceiling, or wall!  It was pretty fun after I got over my fears, although I think that any of my semi-good shots were purely luck.  The gun kept jamming, but apparently only for me.  I think it could sense my terrifiedness!  We were lucky we had such patient people with us at least! So while I don’t plan to be shooting anything ever, at least I can say that I have now.  Thanks to my awesome friend and her BF!  Too bad that’s not on my 101 in 1001 list! 

Obviously she did MUCH better than me.  Not only did she not hit the ceiling but she actually hit the X...or pretty darn close to it.