New experience: shooting guns

I have always felt pretty indifferent when it came to firearms. My father owns 2 guns and I remember using them to shoot at some Coke cans when I was 14 years old at Huntington Lake back in the day, but that was my one and only tangible exposure to the world of guns.

Fast forward 12 years and my interest in guns has slightly changed. With the world pretty much falling apart and the government taking control over more and more liberties with each passing year, I've taken small steps to learn more about self defense and firearms. Fuck them zombies.

Small step number one came about Saturday where Clayton took me to a shooting range and I got to shoot five different hand guns.

To be honest, I was a little nervous ... mostly because of my lack of knowledge and experience with guns, bullets, handling, etc. And naturally, I always built shit up in my head expecting the worst when in reality, nothing is as bad as I make it out to be.

In fact, I had a fucking blast.

People have said shooting off a gun is exhilarating, cathartic and therapeutic. I don't remember feeling any of these emotions when I was 14, so I didn't think I would feel them the second time around either.

Wrong (think Group X voice).

It's not so much the shooting part that is the exhilarating portion either. Not to me at least. It's the learning how to handle a gun that I find much more appealing. Guns are powerful tools and they should be handled with care, and knowing how to handle them makes me feel better than actually shooting them. I mean, don't get me wrong, shooting them was fun as fuck, but I just found walking through the steps of how to load and handle a gun, as intimidating as it was, much more thrilling.

I'm a weirdo, yes I know. Shut it.

So what did I shoot? I shot Rock Island Armory 1911a1, Kahr CW9, Glock 19, Smith and Wesson 910 and a Ruger MKII.

My favorites? The Ruger and the Kahr.

Ruger MKII

Kahr CW9

The Ruger was the first gun I shot, which was a great introduction gun. The Kahr, when it was explained to me, was actually the most intimidating and I almost passed up shooting the little guy, but I'm glad I did because he ended up being my favorite. So much that when I do purchase a firearm, this is the one I want.

I could have also shot a rifle, but I am left-eye dominant and I decided to pass up a gun that requires you to aim with your right eye. It was weird to find out I'm left-eye dominant since I'm right handed in every other aspect of my life ... figures I would be the asshole who complicates things.

I tried shooting with my right eye, but I was much better at hitting the targets with my left, so I stayed with it.

Plus, for whatever reason, my right eye kept on watering like a little bitch.

My awesome fucking shooting skills (sans the ones in the head, those aren't mine).

By the end of the four hours, it was established that I had a pretty good shot. Even Clayton, Mr. Firearms, was impressed! (score!)

And when I told my dad, he naturally took credit for it because that's what he does.

So, who wants to go to Oak Tree with me?

Trying a Tri

I've been running relatively consistently since July 2010 with the goal of running a half marathon and then maybe a full marathon down the line. I've ran four 5K races at the end of 2010 and it's about time to step it up a bit.

So I've decided to do a triathlon.

Clayton, who is an avid cyclist, suggested the June Lake sprint triathlon on July 9. I naturally and without hesitation accepted the challenge because a.) I have an addiction explained in this post, and b.) I have been swimming pretty consistently since January and felt that completing a sprint triathlon wouldn't be too, too hard.

Confident as all hell, I went too Mammoth Lakes this past weekend to run for the first time at an elevation higher than I'm used to.

Castaic elevation: 1,500 feet
Mammoth Lakes elevation: 7,900 feet

I knew it was going to be harder, but when I ran/walked roughly 3.6 miles in Mammoth last Saturday, my heart nearly exploded. The side cramp from hell wasn't any help, either, but I didn't imagine running there would be as tough as it was.

This, naturally, scared me so now I've turned up my training notch to prepare for the tri. I essentially have 10 weeks to train.

FML.

Free shit, thanks to Yelp

I haven't yelped in a long time, but I just went through a week that reminded me why I should return to yelping.

I went to rituals 2 weeks ago to make some appointments to get pampered. When I came in for my facial, the owner comped it since I yelped about them.

She also comped my eyebrow waxing.

I spent that money on the store anyway and bought myself some toner and night cream.

Seriously, right afterward, I headed to Peet's Coffee and Tea to get my dosage of caffeine before going to work and Chris was working.

I had yelped about Peet's mentioning that Chris makes the best cafe mochas there.

He recognized me, asked me if I had yelped about him (in which I responded, "yes") and my coffee and breakfast muffin was on the house.

BAM! 

Time to yelp again.