Another Bowling Adventure

Friday night I went up to Wilsonville with some friends for some yummy Italian food and bowling. I didn't really know what I was in for.

Cosmic hour at the bowling alley set the atmosphere just right (it also did a number on my photography skills--try blue light, neon paint, and a disco ball--a fun new challenge)

Apparently my previous bowling companions and I aren't very creative. These girls suggested doing something different every turn to make the game a little more exciting. I had never considered this before and it really threw me for a loop. I'm not a great bowler anyway, but I have fun and will progressively get better during the game. This new technique guaranteed my first place loss. Although I didn't think I would be last place, barely making double! digits.

Kristi demonstrating the first requirement--booty shaking. This was my second favorite requirement. First favorite? Runway walk
Another one--spinning around 5 times before bowling! Look at Megan's tiny little legs. By the way this one was horrible. I learned a valuable lesson that in hindsight was more valuable than I realized. My first turn I spun to the right and was crazy dizzy. I decided on my second turn to spin to the left and maybe I would unravel myself. That doesn't work. In fact it was significantly harder to do and made me feel worse. As I went back to the girls I commented how the non dominant side was always harder. This was reinforced when we had to bowl left-handed on another turn.

Kristi being the little instigator she is, suggested we use the item to the right on the photo below. It looks like something kids might use, but apparently it is actually for handicap people. We got in trouble for that.

And it wasn't the only thing that got us in trouble. On another turn someone rolled a horrible gutter ball and Kristi (see a pattern?) told her to roll another one quickly to take advantage of her turn . As she rolled the new ball, the other one actually got stuck so it appeared as though we had rolled another ball to "unstick" the first ball. Long story short--you are supposed to use the intercom if the ball gets stuck. (we obviously didn't tell them what are actual intentions were-we were already in enough trouble)

So this entire post was really leading up to the climax of the evening. On a seemingly innocent round we decided to bowl the ball under one leg. It seemed easy enough...not to hit the pins, but to complete the action. I was the very last person to go so I had plenty of time to plan my technique and watch others, none of which ever helped me. So I went once and rolled the ball under my right leg--total gutter ball. I decided to try my left leg on my next roll to get a better angle. I don't know what I was thinking (remember my "lesson learned" from above). I went into my roll and wham! Rolled the ball directly into my left ankle. It hurt-but it gets better. As my friends were exclaiming I saw my ball start to roll away into the gutter. It was obviously going slowly-but still going. I heard Kristi's voice in my head saying "take advantage of your turn! roll again!" and I knew I needed to get that ball. I went against everything I knew about bowling and took two steps into the lane and wham! (for the 2nd time) onto the ground--with the ball. And then I started crying--not from pain, from laughter and I could not stop. I think we were all crying. We couldn't even talk. Keep in mind everyone in the bowling alley already thought we were crazy; now they figured we were just plain stupid as well. As I crawled back up the lane and to my friends the gal next to us reminded me "you know they wax the lanes". I managed to reply "yup, I got that". I did eventually manage to get my other roll in, and then continued to laugh all the way to my next turn. In honor of my fall the next couple of turns went silliness free to prevent further injuries.