on the verge

Current Mood: pensive

Somehow this wacky work schedule that I have opened up for a bit this month, and I just got back a few days ago from a whole week home, and I have to say it was one of the best visits home I can remember. Some highlights:

Got to hang out with Jared (one of Sis's college friends). Went swimming a lot. Burned myself lighting some rockass fireworks that we bought from a shady guy. Ate me some Gold Star chili. Visited Sis and Bradley's church and got to see what that was like - and hear Sis read one of her poems. Ate some of Dad's grill cookin'. Heard from an old friend that I kinda had fallen out of contact with. Gave some presents, got some presents like Bradley's old TV tuner card and a Carson Palmer jersey for my upcoming trip to Green Bay. Saw my Grandma's new apartment and learned some stuff about my grandparents. Rode a bike into a pool. Watched some great new movies. Went to a waterpark with some of my family courtesy of a family friend- and got my first sunburn. I ate downtown and tried sushi for the first time.

It was kinda like a whole summer break of fun compressed into a whole week. Awesome.

One other thing I got to do, which I'm setting aside as a special mention, was go target shooting with Mom and her fiancee Scott.

I've got "learn basic marksmanship" on my LoTtDBID. Previously, I've gone to the callout of the Purdue Rifle and Pistol Club and fired some handguns, I'd taken potshots at turtles with some small .22 rifles at Ronnie's house (waaaay back in the day), and fired some rifles and pistols with Kamikaze last summer. Still, I've never considered any of those any formal test of my ability, which is why I was excited to get to go target shooting. Up until that day the best I would say was that I'd messed around with some weapons but nothing more.

We went to the Elk Creek Hunt Club, a national target shooting circuit stop in Kentucky. I shot 12 and 20 gauge shotguns at small clay targets that were launched into the air by a mechanical thrower. I've never fired a shotgun before, never at a moving target, never at clay targets, and was using unfamiliar guns at a strange course - and I think I did pretty well.

Scott gave me a quick tutorial, and from there I shot four times at each of the 14 stations (for a total of 56 rounds, instead of the standard 100, to save money). The target shooting reminded me very much of Duck Hunt or similar games (which I suppose is the point) - except that it was much harder, and the targets moved with much more variety. For example, some arced down from over my right shoulder, some pairs criss-crossed, others rolled across the ground (called "rabbits"). I would guess that being good at shooting video games is a crossover skill to target shooting? I also learned the scoring system, the etiquette for being the thrower, and s'more gun safety. I ended up with a 54% accuracy over the entire course, with my best station being 4 of 4, and my worst 1 for 4.

I'm now a bit more confident that I can handle a gun, should the unthinkable happen.



And while I was home I really missed doing improv. It's been a long while since I've felt that...