kingpin

last night hue organized an outing for his work group. the activity, the sport of the people: bowling.

it's been a while since hue and susan bowled, probably more than a year. even though bowling is an uncommon event for the couple, susan has her own ball and shoes. the ball is too heavy for her now, but her shoes still fit and are fashionable as ever.

let's share hue's impression of midtown lanes, the alley where we went. the place is attached to a roller skating ring. the first thing you notice when you pull into the parking lot is the restaurant, maria's diner. when hue arrived at 7, the alley was fairly empty, those who were there were all older african american gentlemen. so hue feels a bit out of place. eventually more people show up, including beverly, jessica, her boyfriend anthony, and susan. we actually wait until 8 to start bowling. wednesday's mania madness offer a deal for admission for $6, 50¢ for shoes, and 50¢ for each game.

susan was looking forward to bowling...actually she was looking forward to the food at the alley. she remembers having the best pizza at her own childhood bowling alley. unfortunately, maria's, being a diner, was not the type of establishment with pizza. so she settled for the chili cheese fries that came with hue's double cheese burger and beefy nachos. the nachos and burger weren't the best, but they were cheap and satisfied.

after eating, we get down to bowling. beverly brought her own ball, but swapped it for a smaller one. she didn't do that great, but wants to bowl as a group on a monthly basis. we think bowling should not be overdone and hope to limit the experience to a few times a year.

none of us are masters at this sport. most of us struggle to break a hundred in the first couple of games. anthony is the most consistent and is able to score in the 130's. a guy named jose was bowling in the adjacent lane. he was kind enough to offer tips to us. hue wasn't terribly thrilled with his unsolicited advice. taking criticism is something he has to learn to do better.

by our third and final game, hue is able to make it up to 135. susan gets hot in our last game and gets marks in all frames up to the 8th. she wraps up the evening with a quite respectable 175, almost tying her lifetime high of 177.

we wrap up the evening around 11:30 and hit the hay hard...