BowlnDiva.com

I'm BACK!

Sorry, it's been like ages since I've had the opportunity to post, but I actually bowled something myself worth reporting, so I figured I'd get back in the swing of things.

ABC Update (Michener in length)

Prelude
After a 3 year "maternity leave" I guess I had to get back on the horse sometime. And when Mario was faced with pulling together 2 teams out of nothing, guess who got drafted?

Mario recruited the center manager, head mechanic, a former mechanic now running his own center in NorCal, three Junior Gold parents, and one of Mario's friends, when one of the Internet league bowlers asked if Mario had any room. Let's see 8 bowlers, plus 2 Rodrigui, and suddenly he had his two teams.

We drove (yes, with a 13 and a 3 year old) a rented SUV 7 1/2 hours on Tuesday to bowl Wed/Thur. Zoe saw her first snow driving up, and one of our stops was to fill a paper cup with "snow" (even I know that after it's melted and refrozen that many times it's more like sno-cone than snow) but she was happy. Michael and I must have sang through the soundtrack to "Paint Your Wagon" seven or eight times, so Mario was groaning. :)

We stayed at Siena, and if that place survives, it's GORGEOUS. Right on the Truckee River, and for the first time in my life, a bed that you can actually sleep in the first night without an aching back. The linens on the bed are unlike anything I've ever seen in a hotel. Unfortunately the casino was a ghost town, so I'm doubting it will be there very long.

We were one of the last teams to get our stuff in for the tournament (overnighted to arrive ON the deadline), but we got the best squad times. 2:30 for team and 11:40 for doubles. No sleep deprivation and guess what, they started on time.

We arrived at the stadium and finally met Pat Douglas, who, aside from not liking my choice in shirts (my manager paid for them, but I picked them out) is a great guy. Note to Pat, it could have been worse, my manager, "Steven Segal" could have picked them out ;)

I was really psyched out about bowling a "real" tournament after such a long layoff. Heck, I'm only bowling league every other week these days. So for the last six weeks, I've been...what do they call that....oh yeah, practicing. Then getting my arsenal together again after 4 years, I felt pretty confident on at least having something that i could use (operator error is another story).

Chapter One team event

I wanted to start with the Crisis from outside, and in my first shot watched it sail out past the first arrow and stay there. Moved my feet, and switched to the Navy Quantum. By early 2nd game, I was coming up consistently high (after 3 frames, I knew it wasn't me anymore). Switched to the Command Zone, and switched to the Crisis by early in the 3rd game. I succeed in shooting a polish stepladder: 181-182-180 for 543. Our team, barely out of classified division, shot a 2691, putting us nearly 70 pins over the cash line. OMIGOD, my first ABC check.

We were all bowling well, but most of us were more concerned with the after bowling dinner event at Tony Roma's. We had the waitress hopping with our party of (lucky 13) but we were nothing compared to the table of antique citizens at the corner table demanding separate checks so they could use 5 coupons. Three visits from the waitress and the manager explaining they'd already been told they could NOT have separate checks didn't seem to sink in. Had I brought my larger purse, I would have offered their leader my calculator because she was breaking that bill down to the friggin penny. Of course the highlight was when the waitstaff came out and sang happy birthday to Mario (Michael's idea, and funnier than heck).

Chapter Two Doubles/Singles:
We were third shift on the doubles, so we did pretty much start out where we ended. Playing a relative house shot line at this point I fired off games of 178-210 before the wheels fell off and I shot 133 or something.

We switched pairs for singles and two things happened. My sugar level really took a dump, and so I'm up there begging a lady not to rag on me for eating crackers. And the first few shots actually came up light, so I moved back right thinking maybe they were different. I should have stayed deep, but it took me 2 games to figure that out. 140-148-190. I'll miss a check here by a few pins, but that's my fault.

I had 3 decent games and 3 that outright sucked. If I had just stayed deep, I would have been ok. But I'm looking pretty good for All Events, too...

I wasn't thrilled with being in Classified this year, but it'll get me an extra check, so I'll take it :) I'll be back bowling the JJs of the world next year assuming we can coordinate dates.

Epilogue

One of the best highlights of the tournament was knowing that some of the juniors were actually home and watching every shot on the web cam. Now when I say that I understand difficult shots, they'll believe me. The tournament was a great experience, and I'm glad I got back on the horse again. ;)