The best day! I finally went Curling!

Hello Beautiful People,

It's time to cross something off of my Bucket List. I went Curling today!  I still need to go for lessons, but I got to to go the Charlotte Curling Association Open House today. YAY.  Big shout out to Ms. Amy for telling me about this. Curling has been an obsession of mine for many years. If you have followed my blog for a while you know how much I have wanted to do this. ACK!  I'm so excited. I even painted my nails red and blue last night in anticipation.

I have been trying to go to lessons for a while, but I either can't fit my schedule or they are booked solid. Right now they are sold out for the rest of February. I hope I can sign for March as soon as they release the dates. For now, I will relive my glorious 10 minutes of ice time.

For the 3 Saturdays of the Olympics, the Charlotte Curling Association is offering an Open House. It's free to get in, but for $10 you get the chance to throw two rocks and learn to sweep. It's a pretty Cool deal...pun intended :-)  When Ms. Amy first told me about it I said "Let's go all 3 days!". She thought I was crazy and said we should go to the third one because there will be an Olympic Curler there to meet. I put all 3 on my calendar and still planned to go to them all. And then a youth event came up. They wanted to go snow tubing. I agreed to go as a chaperone because I would still have 2 weeks to go Curling, but I secretly hoped it would cancel. Okay, I wasn't that quiet about my wish to go Curling instead. Voila!  It's raining all weekend. Snow Tubing is rescheduled. Don't worry, I try to use my powers for good and not evil.

So we were on for Curling. Hooray! Ms. Amy and I were in. I invited a young lady from church to join us. Ms. Katie is like the younger sister that I never had. She's sweet and was excited to go.

I woke up eager to get there, but first I had some clients.  My good hip was really tight this morning and I really worried about it. I needed to be flexible for this. Bah!  Darn you Hip!

I somehow made it through my clients' session. I eagerly picked up Ms. Katie and we headed over to Starbucks for a little caffeine and fellowship before the Open House. Eager beavers that we are, we had an hour to kill. I was happy to kill time with a Skinny Cinnamon Dulce latte.  We also went over to Food Lion for some bottled water and a protein bar. We were planning on eating at the Open House, but we weren't sure what they would have and when we would get to eat.

Right after I picked up Ms. Katie we discussed that we both forgot scarves and gloves. So I texted Ms. Amy immediately. Score!  She saved the day and brought some.  I was wearing jeans and Dad's Eagles Sweatshirt to stay warm, but I'm super glad she brought them.

When we got there the parking lot was already full so we parked across the street and got a shuttle over. Shout out to Charlotte Curling for that option.  Kudos!



As you walk in the door you are ushered to fill out a waiver and pay your $10. We were numbers 68, 69, and 70. And they had only been open for 30 minutes!  However, it was moving fast. They called our numbers while we were still filling out our forms.

I was so excited. And super thrilled about the scarf. As you go down the steps to the ice you are suddenly reminded that there is a giant block of ice in the room. brr. We brushed the dirt off of our shoes and entered the Curling area.

The first thing we did was get a rubber bootie to put over our dominant foot. If you haven't watched curling, you have one foot that grips and one that slides. When I was getting dressed for today I made sure that I put on sneakers that had good tread. I am terrified of slipping on ice.



We were told to walk to the far end of the ice. There was a family getting their instructions by a very nice gentleman in crazy green and black checkered pants. I was equally antsy to get on the ice and terrified I would blow it.

Out of our group, Ms. Katie went first and killed it. She's a natural. I went second. After my first throw Mr. Green Pants said it would have been a perfect throw for a juniors game. I will take it as a compliment. While it looks easy, Curling is not. There is so much to think about.

First of all the rock that you are "throwing" is 42 lbs of granite. Do not be fooled, you don't physically throw anything. You use momentum to rock back and forth, push off of the hack (a stationary bracket" with your dominant foot, and release the rock by pushing the rock and letting go of the handle. The physical part is tough at first. I realized that it is all I focused on. I can't even imagine factoring in aim and strategy. My second throw was similar and I was pretty happy with it.

Ms. Amy went next and did spectacular. I'm telling you, with practice we could represent the United States in 2022!

Next up was our Sweeping time. This too looks easy on TV. Um...Nope. There were 4 of us with brooms and that rock got so far ahead of us. We should have started further out. And my grippy shoes worked against me. I couldn't keep up. Grr. We only got one shot at it.

Our last moment on the ice was a photo op. We were told to look professional. Lol.




When we left the ice we smelled food. So we went to the food truck outside. Tin Kitchen was there for the Open House. It was so hard to figure out what to get. I think I stood there for 5 minutes before I ordered. It all looked so good.


In the end I went with the special. I got two Pork Loin tacos with black bean/corn salsa and cilantro/lime aoli. It did not disappoint. OMG. So delicious.  It's worth going back just for that.



We brought our food back in to eat and watch Curling on the TV.  It was fun. Occasionally a trivia question would be asked and Ms. Katie was right on it. She's a Curling Savant I tell you.

Soon some seats overlooking the ice opened up and we made our way over to occupy them and watch everyone take their turn. I paid particular interest to the sweeping. I was so mad what we sucked so bad at it. I am determined to do a better job next time.

We sat there for a little while and enjoyed our free bag of Cheetos, an official sponsor of Curling. It's been a long time since I had them, but I enjoyed a nice treat.



Eventually we decided that we should go, but that we were definitely coming back in two weeks (although I would like to go again next Saturday lol).

I will be better prepared for the next time.

*I will make sure I get my yoga in to make my hips more flexible.

*I will not wear jeans, I will wear something that moves easier.

*I will remember my gloves and scarf.

*I will wear sneakers with less tread.

*I will bring hot chocolate :-)

I hope you enjoyed my recap of a pretty cool day. Hopefully there will be more Curling posts to come.


Have a Blessed Evening,

Jennie
xoxo


****Please note****


 If you feel like you are alone on your journey and you just need some encouragement I am here for you! Shoot me an email and I will do my best to check in on you or give you the words of support you need several times a week. The journey is so much easier if you have support.

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