Our new favorite sport

Recently, Jeremy and I were introduced to the amazing sport of curling. Eh? What's that you say? What the heck is curling?

Just in case you don't know, curling is an Olympic winter sport. You know...that funny looking game where they yell and are brooming while a circle thing goes down the ice? Yep, that is curling.

Now, I know you are wondering how in the hell we discovered curling. It all started when a new post-doc (Wendy) joined Jeremy's lab. Wendy is married to Michael and they use to live in Michigan where Michael was in a curling league. Upon moving to New Haven, Michael looked up the nearest curling league and lo and behold there was one in Bridgeport. Michael then convinced Jeremy and two other guys from Jeremy's lab to join his curling team. Quickly team names were discussed, among the favorites were...Sparkle Magic, My Little Ponies, and The Sweeping Beauties. Of course, they went with Sweeping Beauties. Face it...it's an awesome name!

So the boys were all geared up to join this curling league before ever stepping foot on the ice. Then one night, Wendy, Christen and myself decided that we wanted in on the action. The Nutmeg Curlers (the league in Bridgeport) was having a learning night. You could come, learn to curl, and then decide if you wanted to join the league. We didn't have a clever name yet, but were ready to try out this strange Canadian sport.

On a Thursday evening, not long ago...the group of us headed to Bridgeport. It didn't take long for all of us to realize that the sport of curling is awesome and we were ready to join the league!

On our first night we learned the basics of curling. The round thing that slides on the ice is called a "rock". When you are sweeping with a broom that is called "sweeping" (duh). The piece of plastic that you put your right foot in when preparing to slide the rock is called "the hack". The bulls eye design where you push the rock to is called the "house". The person standing down at the house yelling is called "the skip".

The basics of curling were pretty easy to pick up, but the finesse and strategy are truly complicated. The rock flies pretty fast down the ice, so finding the perfect balance of releasing it takes a lot of time to perfect.

Of course, after our trial of curling we all decided to join the league. We are now in the Greenhorn League of the Nutmeg Curlers. On Thursday nights and Saturday mornings you will find us on the ice. I (of course) am the only one freezing my ass off! I am hoping that once we start playing games I won't be as cold.

There have been a few tumbles on the ice so far. On your shoes you wear "grippers" that keep you from falling. When you are getting ready to throw the rock you put a piece of teflon shaped like the bottom of your shoe onto the ice and then you really slide fast. I was getting use to the teflon and decided to lift my gripper foot up...let me just tell you...I saw my feet go above my head before I crashed down onto the ice. My rear was quite a bit sore the next day!

Due to work I am forced to miss my first Thursday of league play, so I will have to let you know how that goes in a couple of weeks. It is great to be a part of a team and have some fun while meeting some new people and bonding more with the people we already know. It is also pretty cool to be doing a sport that not many people can say they have tried.

So there you have it, we have a new favorite sport. Maybe we will start training for the Olympics soon! ha ha!