Humble thyself in the sight of...a gutter ball?

If you know me really well, you probably know that I am a pretty competitive person. I like to win...who doesn't? And in most things I can usually, at the least, "hang" with whoever is playing and have a good time. I've even been known to partake\ in numerous advertising leagues such as softball, bowling and even dodge ball. It's pretty fun, but once I'm in the game...I'm there to win.

This brings me to the sport of bowling. I'm not a bad bowler...in fact our bowling team won our league and we all carried 170+ averages through the season, with me somewhere around a 178 (insert pause)...So, if you know me really, really well, you probably know that I get silly sometimes and take things to the next level of goofy. In the realm of bowling, that is made visible by my mom's birthday present to me 2 years ago (when I was in the middle of my league)...a pair of bowling shoes and a professional bowling ball. The crazy thing about the ball is that it's designed to generate even more spin than I already bowl with and it took quite a while to get used to...but once I got used to it, it made me a better bowler even though I was now known as "that guy" on my team.

Another thing you'd know about me is that...after a while, I sometimes lose interest and flat out stop doing what I was doing...ie - I hadn't bowled in roughly a year and a half until last Saturday...

Kristine and I are totally blessed with friends in Atlanta. We have a great small group with our church and recently met another group of cool folks that we've hung out with a few times. We've been getting to know each other for a little while now, and decided to have a group outing to bowl. This sounds like a good idea, and me being the dork that I am, would certainly bring out the ole ball and shine up the ole shoes for the fun...thus, by the time I get to the bowling alley, it is firmly established that I have a ball and shoes...don't tell anyone, but I know this immediately made me "that guy". Now, I didn't ever say I was any good, because truth be told, I was a bit nervous about rolling this ball since it'd been so long...

So, what happened? Well, I started off with 5 straight gutter balls and then hit 4 pins. Needless to say, I sucked. Finally, in the 7th and 9th frames I rolled strikes and felt like I would at least fare better in game two...I didn't. Ultimately, my two game score wasn't anywhere close to my single game average from the good ole league days. In Fact, I got second to last, and last place in the games...needless to say, when you're rolling your own ball and sportin your own shoes, this performance is more than embarrassing...Humbling to say the least. The best part was that I could tell my wife was defending me in front of the group, who probably thinks I'm the biggest chump bowler of all time. Just one reason why I love her.

In the end, Kristine and I got home and had a great laugh...in reality, it's all you can do when you make a total ass of yourself, otherwise I'd drive myself crazy.