Adventures in Bowling

Picture it. East Providence Lanes early afternoon on a Sunday. Among small children with their parents, and semi-professional bowlers, a group of students (with two adult chaperones), in some brightely colored bowling shoes, occupied two lanes. Challenges are made, names inputed into a sophisticated computer system, and balls chosen. This, my friends, was the DR bowling trip.

We quickly divided into two teams: The team which wanted bumpers (Let's call them Team 1: Jess, Rachel, Sarah, Kayla), and the team that did not (Let's call them Team 2: Ms Baez, Jen, Chirs, Kayla) , with Kayla playing for both. Somehow no bumpers were raised, and both teams had to watch out for the gutter. Chris talked up his bowling skills, and so a challenge broke out between Chris, Kayla and Jen. Who would be the victor? Only time could tell.

We started bowling, and quite quickly, had to have a service person over. Somehow Jess had managed to get her ball stuck in the gutter. The game was paused as the ball was retrieved, and more bowling ensued.

I must admit, we had some unique bowling strategies. There was the "chuck it down the alley" method, the "in between your legs" method, the "try to spin it" method, the "backwards" method, the "I don't know how I do it but I get a strike every time" Kayla method, and the "I don't know if I'm a righty or a lefty so I'll do both" Sarah method. There was a two year old next to us that had quite the success with the "sit on the floor and push the ball with two year old might" method (she had multiple strikes in a row) that we also tried with no success. You can't say we weren't creative.

As for the challenge between Chris, Kayla and Jen? Well, Kayla creamed us all with an array of stikes. So it was a nail biting finish to second place. It all came down to the last frame. Jen managed to get a strike, pulling her to the lead with 102. Christ stepped up. Nervous and Ibelieve sweating with anxiety. First ball: no strike. Second ball: A SPARE!?!? It was a photo finish, but Chris came in second with 105 to Jen's 103. Oh and Ms Baez had a strike in there somewhere too.