Turkeys, Chickens, and Quails Oh My!

I’d like to give a shout out to the one and only Gillian Apps, a fellow Dartmouth graduate I am told that you read this blog so hopefully you will see this post. Appsy, as we called her in college, won her 2nd gold medal this past weekend in the Vancouver Olympic Games. Congratulations! It was fun watching you on TV over the week. I ended up getting nostalgic and thinking about some of our times at Dartmouth ranging from Freshman English with the Boone to the River Dorms to Jenny from the Block to Larry and the Senior Lobster and Corn Dinner. We had plenty of good times and great memories in Hanover and even mini-reunion in Paris. Hopefully, we can meet up again sometime soon. I know I’d love to get to Toronto and you need to come see all the scooters in Madison.

Now for the blog! You may be wondering what is going on with the strange title. No, this will not be a write up on the different types of poultry. It is actually going to be about the bowling league that I participate in on Tuesday nights. Yup, that’s right I am in a bowling league. It still sounds strange when I say it out loud. Apparently, I do not look like your typical bowler, as my coworkers all but laugh at me when I tell them I am headed to the alley for another round of 10-pin. Well, everyone should believe it! From here until the middle of May I will be spending my Tuesday nights at Badger Bowl with Madison’s finest bowlers.

I have to admit the first couple weeks of the season did not go very well. I had to miss the first week as I had pilates class and the following week I was a half hour late because I was getting 3 cavities filled. Side note: it has now been 3 weeks and 2 days since I have eaten candy! Who’s proud of me?? Also, during the 2nd week we were matched up against some really rude people. They were not fun to bowl with at all. In fact, one of the guys stared down Sabrina and got within about 3 inches of her face because she bowled before he completed his roll. Since no one on our team had ever been in a bowling league we were not up to speed on proper bowling etiquette. Whoops! Needless to say, we are learning fast! Oh, and we also got dominated in each of these matches. After this shaky start, the bowling league was not looking like the most promising idea. I shouldn’t paint the picture to bleak; there were a few bright spots—free pizza each week, time spent with friends, and a place in the league record book! Laura bowled a 232, which is the 2nd highest total for a female bowler thus far.

A sudden turn of events occurred during Week 3. The people we bowled against were great. They actually talked to us and made it a somewhat social event. Despite the first couple weeks, this seemed only natural since it is called Have a Ball Bowling League and is geared toward first time leaguers. (Can’t believe that is a word?? Maybe it is not but it is not showing up underlined. I’ll leave it because Word’s spell checker is never wrong). While these bowlers were nice, they were definitely not amateurs. They ended up beating us pretty soundly. So, we were a struggling 0-3 in the league. Not the best start for an overly competitive person who hates to lose at anything she does!

And that bring us to week 4; thus far, the pinnacle of my bowling league career. This past Tuesday, the Rubber Souls bowling team did not lose its match. Unfortunately we didn’t win either; we tied with each team knocking down 1779 pins. I thought this was remarkable. How can there be a tie in bowling league with that many games, frames, rolls? Well, it happened and I should tell you that I could not have been more thrilled. I have always known that I am a cutthroat competitor but I did not think it would apply to something as leisurely as bowling. After all, I am not a great bowler and bowl maybe 2 times per year. However, my competitive spirit was in full effect on Tuesday. This was the first week that there was a chance that we could actually win. The Rubber Souls were cheering for each other and expecting nothing less than excellence with each throw. Sadly, I found myself internally cheering against the other team—not sure my teammates were as in to it as I was so I do not want to make them look bad. I felt kind of guilty about this since they too were a nice team. But hey we were 0-3 and desperately needed a victory. Well, we came up 1 pin short, but this match boosted mine and the team’s confidence. Look out fellow Have A Ball bowlers, the Rubber Souls are on a mission to start winning.

As for the title it’s a little bowling lingo. For those of you who are not up to speed on “alley talk” I’ll clue you in on a little secret. Most everyone knows that a turkey is what a bowler calls 3 strikes in a row. But not everyone knows that a chicken is called out when a bowler makes 4 strikes in a row and the rare 5 strike streak is represented by the quail.

Roll ‘em straight and hit the pocket,

The Bean Spiller