I have a lot to catch up on.. Essential journal entry here about Paintball and Halloween follows…

*10/18, Saturday – We went to Connecticut for Andrew’s Birthday. Of course, we celebrated with a paintball trip. Henry drove us there the night before and we stayed over at Andrew and Amy’s place. My first and only time there since Andrew was moving back to New York. It was so cold outside I was glad to be indoors. They had a cat there too (jiggles or something) that was nice to have around. It tried to nest on me while I was sleeping. Henry remarked it was similar to how I was nesting on the sleeping bag.

We got up early the next day for paintball. Amy prepared some food for us to give us energy to run around. I was tired and lazy at first but I got full of energy once the adrenalin was flowing.

In a lot of the areas, our team – me, Henry, Mike with his pistol, Ed, Andrew, Allen with his pistol (and camera) – would lose at first but own once we get a feel for the area. There were three highlight games for me – one was when I went all out aggressive and ran all the way in gunning for the first enemy I saw. I died right away but I took him out too. Another was when I ran into a middle building and took 3-4 people out since they couldn’t hit me and I was shooting through the cracks.

Lastly, there was a game where I played defense so I stayed back to guard the flag while the others went offensive. Towards the end, there were three enemies against me and a newbie guy all the way at the back rock. There was a good paintball player on the other team who berated us with bullets but he ran out so he took himself out of the game. The enemy asked if I wanted to surrender. I said “NO! Why don’t you come out?” My team targeted at one guy and eventually took him out. I told the newbie to cover me as I ran under the branches towards the last guy and I shot him claiming victory for my team =D.

Games like those made me love paintball. I was also happy to wear my full multicam camo even if everyone else was wearing digital. Henry said I blended in well with the woods. We had great teamwork and strategy. Henry was taking lead on organizing everyone and it worked out. There was one game where Ed & Mike took high ground while the rest of us approached the enemy on low ground in a diagonal formation so we had each other covered. We kept up pressure on the enemy so we could progress. Mike & Ed took out everyone on high ground and Mike helped us take out people on low ground while I drew their focus fire on me so Mike could get in close. I followed Henry past the hill and we killed off everyone.

Such great times. I hope to play a lot more next year!

Gallery: http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/gallery/6326641_d5FYq

That night, after cleaning up, we ate some wings for dinner then headed home.

Gallery: http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/gallery/6326691_mNUaM