So I am just back from utah where I just curled in the olympics.
We were canada’s entry for the mixed curling event.
All considered we did not too badly at all.

This is all true,
if by utah you mean beautiful squamish british columbia;
and if by olympics you mean the annual BC Rail Curling Bonspiel.
and if by canada’s entry, you mean two people who couldn’t find a team who were put with two guys who weren’t sure they wanted to curl at all.
and if by not to badly at all, you mean curled 4 games, lost 4 games, 2 of them so badly that they weren’t actually played through all 8 ends.

I learned some things this weekend.  You’d think that the first was that I am not in good shape.  Well that’s not true, I knew that one so well before the weekend that it doesn’t even really count as an affirmation. 

Things I learned…(although I admit I knew some of these things before)

• No matter how well you stretch, if you don’t curl on a regular basis, it is going to use muscles groups that you just don’t on a regular basis.  I mean, perhaps, I guess, if you are in a habit of throwing yourself forward into a leg lunge, or pushing your left leg across your kitchen floor with your right, while bent over sweeping, then you’d be ok.  But as it is, those muscle groups are going to be angry with you.
• It is indeed possible to have the inside of one of your thighs scream in agony from being mal-used while the other one things it has been out for a nice walk in the park.
• That sweeping can be hard freaking work.
• That doing much better than you thought on your first game than you thought you would, even though you lost will actually help you to feel better about yourself as you go on to lose the next two games so poorly that you have to call game before it is actually finished.
• That losing by 7 is a lot easier to swallow when they only get one point an end (until the last one) even though you are so far behind after the 6^th end that you call game.
• That curling a few games 6 years ago and a dozen or so games 10 years before that pretty much count for nothing. 
• That being demoted from 2^nd to 1^st after one game could be disheartening or embarrassing, I guess, but having your game improve by a factor of about 3 in the new position would help curb any such feelings should they exist.
  • That winning the best prize in the door prize draw because you changed to the 1^st position rocks.
  • That after a while if enough people around you tell you that a limited edition, numbered collectors plate with a Train Engine and a passenger car on it begins to seem like, ‘the best prize,’ even if you think it’s insanely ugly.
• That even though you thought your pain was pretty much as big as it could go, if you keep committing yourself to the same physical activity day after day, it will indeed get worse.
• That curling is FUN.   (ok, I kind of knew that)
• That curling is hard work (possibly with the exception of that lazy assed, no sweeping skip guy)
• That curling in pants of a denim nature isn’t the best of ideas.
  • That even though the pants make it through the first game with no problems at all, if you have worked so hard in that game that they fit loser the next day, they may not make it through the next day.
  • That once a rip stars there ain’t nothing that’s gonna stop it.
  • That curling rinks are drafty.
  • That getting into a car can complete any ripping job started by throwing yourself repeatedly into leg lunges.
  • That pants can have a hole the same size as the hole in the top of the pants, in the crotch and still have the legs attached.  Amazing.
  • That Fields stores, the small town answer to white trash shopping, can sell you a brand spanking new pair of track pants for $9.99.
  • That the difference between the premium Field’s track pants, at a price of $17.99 and their cheaper pants is pockets.
  • Track pants are comfortable (so sue me, I haven’t owned a pair in, well, since high school).
• That it doesn’t matter how embarrassed you have been in the past by your father, he can find new depths.
• That there is really a stage of drunkenness where vision actually goes away.
• If everyone knows you and/or your father, there is no claiming that you aren’t related.
• That 4 games can be a lot of curling.
• That it is really easy to want to change your game strategy on day two when you find out that if you just lose one more game that you can play at 9 a.m. the next morning, lose it as well, and be home by noon.
• That it is really hard to convince the teammates that live in town that this is a good strategy to follow.
• That if you don’t actively pursue the strategy and actually try hard, but tell people that you are actually throwing all the games because of your ‘strategy,’ that losing is much less belittling.
• That trying hard and losing, is better when the reward is going home early.
• That the pain never goes away (at least at this point).

I think that’s enough lessons eh?

I will say I had fun and might be talked into it again next year.

We might even win a game then.

 
   Oh yeah…the girl.

You probably want an update.
um, well given that I was away and out of communication from her pretty much since the last update…things are going swimmingly.

I will let you know more as more develops.