Zooooooorbing

Hey, blog-readers and Polich-enthusiasts! It's Shawna, posting under Sarah's header. I'd like to say that I'm coming to you, Live!, from inside my Zorb ball, but that would be a lie... In reality, I crawled out from my Zorb ball a couple days ago, but am still glowing from the experience. Enough so, that Sarah has asked me to blog about it. This task also buys her a precious few minutes of me not talking about it all of the time. I've been starting too many stories recently with the lead in: "This one time...  In my Zorb ball..."

In brief, the Zorb itself is a giant clear plastic sphere. Nested inside of it is a second smaller clear plastic sphere with a seat and harness thingy. (Stop me if I'm getting too technical with my language.) The bubble rolls down a hill, courtesy of gravity, and spins the occupant inside @ss-over-tea kettle. This 30-second euphoria will set you back $40, but you get a free Facebook pic upload and a lifetime of being able to say with authority, "Never judge a hamster until you've rolled in her ball..." So, I call it a bargain at any price.

We drove up to the Zorb track right after they opened at 9am, and we were the only car in the parking lot.
I purposely decided not to read too much into that. First off, they need to verify with a line on the wall that you are tall enough to ride the ride. I was not. Next, you hope the recent college grads running the show are willing to look the other way on regulations like that. They were. Following this safety dance, I was parted from all of my loose items and cautioned to watch my head as I got into the back of a truck to be driven up a short hill to the Zorb launch pad. (I totally did hit my head exiting the truck, but I'll be damned if I was going to show weakness now!)

You enter the contraption by squeezing through a blue opening that I've been trying very hard not to call a sphincter. Once you are strapped in, you are not given too much time to contemplate the vomit-spatter patterns that may once have decorated this chamber, and the metal gate before you is opened. One small push. A slow rotation of your head forward and your feet backwards. And away you go down the hill!

It was awesome. Less than a minute, but I laughed the entire time and hurled not once. And I had my eyes opened for most of it. I know, I know... It occurred to me too:  Zorbing sounds just like sex.