UnLucky Loser

  
Today I took the girls and met up with my good friend Jennifer and her daughter Emma for an afternoon of bowling. Emma is going into sixth grade this year and she has been friends with my girls ever since we moved to Texas from Maryland two years ago. I love Emma's spirit.  She is outgoing and spontaneous and she knows how to laugh, just like us. She knows what she likes and doesn't like and she's not afraid to tell you.  I can see why my girls like her so much.  If I were Emma's age, I'd definitely pick her to be my friend too.
     So anyway, there we were, all five of us at the bowling alley, ponied up to the cash register guy, getting ready to pay for our afternoon of fun when  good 'ol Emma, pulled out a report card from the school year that just ended which said she had perfect attendance during the entire school year and an accompanying coupon for two hours of free bowling, free shoe rentals, and a free pitcher of coke (most importantly of course) for us all!  SCORE!  I decided at that moment, that it would  be  crucial to include Emma in more of our summer fun. 
     The bowling alley we went to was an older one, where the air conditioner was turned down really low to make it feel more like a meat locker than a place to bring your kids and bowl. But hey, it's Texas and it is summer so I am not complaining.  
     On another note, we were there for all of fifteen seconds when Brooke VERY loudly announced to everyone, "Oh gross, this place looks and smells like an airport!" It is during moments like these that I remind myself my husband and I have spent thousands of dollars on speech therapy and wonder if the silence before speech was better.
     We got our classy bowling shoes on and began our game with great enthusiasm. Let me assure you,  the actual act of bowling itself was quite a sight for any spectator, at least whenever it was my turn.   I promise you there will be no dust in the gutters of lane 18.  I continued to embarrass myself well into the second game, even after we asked the management to put the bumpers up. Anyone watching would find it hard to believe after today's performance, but I swear, as a kid, I briefly played on a bowling team called The Lucky Losers and I was pretty good. Today there was no Lucky in my skills.  I was all Loser.
     We also enjoyed the typical bowling alley pizza while we were there.  You know, the pizza that tastes the same way it did 30 years ago- Sort of gross and good at the same time.

     After bowling, we ventured over to the arcade where Jennifer and I had an "old school" go at air hockey while the kids wasted dollar bills in all the other games trying to rack up as many tickets as they could. Yep, no exaggeration when I say Jennifer and I played  air hockey with the kind of umphf that required putting our hair up in ponytails so we could get down to business- grunting, yelling, making that table shake, and breakin' a sweat.  I felt like it was summer, and I was 16, and that felt great. After it was all said and done, I was beat by the Babbster (my new nickname for J, a variation of her maiden name) but I put up a valiant effort.  Jennifer was vicious at air jockey.  That is just the kind of competition I like.   Next time, next time......... 
     After the girls spent way too much time deciding what ridiculously overticketed (I can't say overpriced if they are buying with tickets, can I?) junk they would cash their arcade tickets in for, we headed home.  As we pushed open the black tinted, heavily fingerprinted glass doors of the bowling alley and headed to the car, engulfed in the beaming hot summer heat, one of my kids ceremoniously asked, 'What are we gonna go do next?"