My Return to the Lanes

At the tail end of the President's Day weekend, some friends invited me to return to the lanes. The bowling lanes. This was my first trip to a bowling alley in probably 3 years. It's not something I do all that often, and when I do I admit to being pretty bad at it. Not sure why, though, since everyone throughout time (and again this night) remarked about how good my form and follow-through is (if only my picture-perfect form was followed up with some strikes).

In any event, I still enjoy bowling a good deal. It's cheap, it's fun and it's one of those sports that both guys and gals can play together without anyone feeling like they were mercy-picked for a team. Hell, one girl brought her own ball with hearts and shit all over it, and she whipped a lot of us so there you go.

I was group with Kelly and his girl Mel B. I clearly should have stopped after my first game, because for some reason I was feeling it and scored probably my best game of bowling ever. According to the wife apparently I've bested this score before several times (including a 160-something once that included some rather annoying self-congratulations). Either way, I was surprised by my opening stanza.


Hell yeah, and I even scored an early victory over Kelly. That wasn't going to last, though. Because soon enough, he was throwing strikes. Lots of 'em.



By the end of the night, Kelly was pulling away. I hung around most of the time, but in 5 total games he won the matchup 3-2. Pulling up the rear was Mel B in most of the contests, but damn she turned it on in the last game, and was in a fierce battle with him until the end. He even went so far as to break the boyfriend code and started cheering in front of everyone when she screwed up and messed up a frame. Cold stares from Mel B, believe me. Overall he was good, though, and if you listen closely you can hear his "looks good!" before she gets robbed of a strike.




In the end, she came up just short of beating him. I hope I'm there when she does; that will be good times. The rest of the night was filled with listening to bad music (I think they had a Journey-techno remix on shuffle all night) and laughing about the bowling alley's assortment of food offerings, like fried clams, fried cheese, more fried cheese, friend oysters and french fries. There was no lettuce or vegetables in sight, believe me. Classic bowling alley.