Played paintball with Reiley on Saturday, she’d been asking for a while and then Groupon provided the financial motivation with an all-day offer to play at Black River Paintball for half price. I was so intimidated and worried about it being too rough – I geared us up with baggy clothes and scarves around our soft fleshy necks. Good thing, we both took shots to the head! And had a total blast. After the first few minutes we were keeping up with all the teenage boys in style, dishing it out and ending up in most of the final firefights. We took our requisite bruises in stride with pride and are ready for more. The Angier location has some amazing fields, with forts, old cars on their sides, forest, bridges. The refs were great, always allowing Reiley and me to be on the same team. And everyone was nice and friendly, both staff and players.

Now if all the gun nutjobs would discover the joy of paintball – competition! team play! adrenaline! projectiles! – and give up the rest of it, this would be a kinder, gentler Nation. :-)