Colleen Jones will be calling me...

I learned to curl yesterday. And I didn't fall down, not even once.

My friend Liane decided that we were going to learn to curl (she has a bad habit of deciding that "we" are going to learn things) because her 3 kids curl and she spends hours in the curling rink anyway, so she might as well know what she is doing. They have a Newbie League on Sunday afternoons where they teach you the basics. I was a little apprehensive since the closest I have come to curling is watching the Briar on tv and changing the channel because it was boring. It is a lot harder than it looks on tv. And how do the women curl in those little pleated skirts?

You have to have good balance - which I do not. I can't even stand on one foot without falling over (this is not an exageration, I actually cannot do this). And you need to have a light grip on the rock, which I can't seem to do. I have a death grip on the rock which means sometimes I can't get my hand off fast enough and the rock moves about 3 feet. Apparently using the rock to hold yourself up is not it's purpose. Who knew? And I haven't got the knack of judging the weight - my first rock bounced off the other end, then my next 4 or 5 didn't even make it over the hog line. And to think of all these things at the same time - no, not in the forseeable future. Towards the end of the afternoon, our instructor would stand at the other end and put her broom where she wanted us to aim. Where I want the rock to go bears no relation to where the rock actually goes. Its a mystery where its going to end up every time I release.

I learned that sweeping is not fun. Trying to go quickly down the ice without falling is hard enough, but add in sweeping, looking at the rock so you sweep in front of it but don't hit it or the other persons broom is a near impossible combination. Too bad I don't know enough to be a skip, the skip hardly ever sweeps.

It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot. Especially terms that I had heard before but never knew what they meant. So I will be going back next Sunday to learn some more.

Oh, and my last rock of the day landed right in the button. I totally meant to do that.

Official Birthday Countdown: 10 days until my birthday!