Bowling
In lieu of a standard birthday party for Katie, we took the family and a few of her friends bowling. We put the bumpers (flexible black plastic drainage pipe) in the gutters to prevent the ball from going there and let the girls have at it. A fellow father and I were in another lane. Since he was being “helped” by his 2 and 3 year old childen, we put bumpers in our gutters as well. My daughters didn’t assist me, but I bowled in the second bumpered lane anyway.
In the little girl’s lane, it was a contest to see who could roll the ball the slowest down the lane. They shared the lightest ball in the place, a bright orange one. Once it didn’t make it all the way to the pins and had to be retrieved. Another time we had to get the staff to retrieve the ball because it wasn’t heavy enough to roll from the back basket to the ball return chute.
Marissa’s shoes were the same size, but one had its sole worn down so much that it was more than a quarter inch lower than her other one.
Meanwhile, I was taking bowling too seriously in my lane. Even though I am a bad bowler, I figured it would be easy to score higher than the other dad who was “toddler-assisted.” I did, but barely. My score, even with bumpers, was anemic 97. No strikes and only one spare. Pathetic. And they isn’t much glory in barely ourscoring a toddler. And taunting a two year old isn’t very rewarding.
When my game was over, I started watching Marissa more closely. Bowling for the first time, with mismatched shoes and the lightest ball in the place that barely made it down the lane, she was in the eighties in the eighth frame. After my hollow victory, I was cheering on my daughter hoping she would outscore me. Then at least someone would have a sense of accomplishment.
It was not to be. Her score was seven shy of mine. Pretty good for a six-year-old, but she lost out on the opportunity to trash talk me.
Today my company HR director just sent out a request for volunteers for the Corporate Challenge bowling tournament. I’ll send my daughter. At least she can have some competition.