Pappy's Rock -n- Bowl (or Choke on Smoke)

Saturday we had a potluck at church. I didn't have any plans for the rest of the evening, expect maybe doing a "Sonic Run" with some friends of mine ... but if something else came up instead, I think I could handle missing out on a slush. Seth asked me if I wanted to go bowling with a bunch of his friends. I said, "Why not?" I didn't realize that a bunch of his friends was the 13-16 year old crowd at church. Stand out much?

Seth's mom came by a little later, and she's asking him about who's coming and plans and such. She points at me and says, "Are you going?" I nod my head. "You're supervising." "Nooooo, now I have responsibility!" She laughs. I don't. OK, maybe I did. (I change verb tense too much, I can't help it.)

Katie Kiepke decides to come along since I can give her a ride there and back to Big Sandy, so she and I load up, I change clothes, and we head over to Kilgore, home 0' the Forrestiers. Oh, and I have my own bowling ball: I bought it at a garage sale about 13 years ago. It has it's own ball carrying case and everything. It was old then, so you KNOW it was feeling the years now. NOT to mention that I asked my mom where she thought it might be, and she said "I put it out by the woodpile. I was thinking about throwing it away." Nooooooo! You have to understand: this ball has huge finger holes, and only weighs 8 pounds. It's like chunking a softball down the alley. It's got some huge cracks in the outer shell, though. It's not a trophy bowling ball by any means. There are some freaky shards right around the thumb hole that were quite painful when I started using it. The ball bag ... now THAT was a sight to behold. All dirty on the outside, so leaves stuck to it AND inside it. I could have sold it for $100 at Hot Topic. Easy.

We get to the Forrestier's house, and we still have about 45 minutes to kill (we have a lane rented at 9pm). I come in to see the whole crew of kids wearing white shirts and ties. Not shirts that ties belong with. Just random white shirts and badly tied (and not very stylish) ties. "Good! Karl's wearing a white shirt! Give him a tie!" Well, there you have it. Seth picked out a very nice (?) vintage tie for me. You know the type. Real skinny, no one wears them anymore, etc. I made sure the little end was REEEEALLY long. Classy for sure. Katie was wearing all black, so she was given the all-white tie. She was definitely the negative of our little white shirt photo. Josh also decided he was going to wear a tall Uncle Sam hat for the extra "that's weird" effect.

We had 8 people (including myself): me (ha, I'm first), Seth, Madeline, Ashley, Josh, Lindsey, Mandy, and Katie. (The first 3 are Forrestier, the next 3 are Crockett, and the last is the long Kiepke of the bunch. Oh, and me, the ever-present Harmdierks.) The kids came out and showed off to the parents, and got the rundown (probably the 50th) of all the rules. First it was buddy system going to the bathroom, and then it turned into the triple system. Being as there were only 3 of us guys, at this point I pointed at both of them and said, "We're all using the restroom at the same time. I'm not taking a trip in there everytime someone else needs to potty." Deric gave me the keys to his van, so we all piled in there and drove down to the bowling alley (a thrilling 3 minutes away). Ugh. I hate driving other people's large vehicles.

We got in, grabbed our shoes, paid for the lane ($25 from 9pm-1am), and then started bowling. All through the evening, people were running to the jukebox and bringing up all sorts of crazy music, and eating lots of sugar, and DRINKING lots of sugar. There was more energy in our small space than I could have imagined. In between bowling frames, the girls would just start swing dancing in the floor area. I was sure they were going to spin into someone at the nearby lane and get us all kicked out. That or whenever one of them would just drop the bowling ball from chest level as their roll. Yikes. We also had a good breakout dance session to "My Humps" right in the middle of a game. We had to do team games, because you're only supposed to have 6 people on a lane anyways. So, we all split into 2-person teams based on supposed bowling skills. Mandy and I were teamed up for the first game (aptly named "Kandy") and squashed the competition by nearly 30 points. We kept our awesome twosome together for another game, and Kandy squeaked by for a last frame victory (we jumped from last to first near the end. Mandy kept either getting double gutters or strikes. Oh, and she kept telling me, "Get a strike this time, so I can get one next time." I'm thinking to myself that getting strikes is always my goal, no matter what.) Then, we switched the teams up, and I was paired with Ashley, and team "KASH" took the win again. Actually, Desirée called me after I had only bowled one frame, and by the time I got back, Ashley had wiped up the competition single-handedly. Beautiful.

Then came the switch up again, and Madeline, who had been playing horribly all night, is my new partner. Somehow against all odds, team "K-Mooooooooooo" took it home again by nearly 30 points. Somewhere in there, she decided that she was going to really step it up a notch. The granny shot was taking down pins left and right. I think maybe it was all my screaming. Finally for the last game of the night, I got Mandy back as my partner, and team "ManKarl" finished off the night with a victory. Old Blue (my bowling ball) really brought the game to the alley. ...I really don't know what that's supposed to mean. I think it's got more cracks in it, too.

Other moments of the evening:
- Played some pool with Josh and Mandy while a few last single player bowling games went on.
- Took a wrong turn at "what is this huge door, oops, the women's restroom"ville.
- Yelling "STRIIIIIKE!" everytime you bowl ... except when you get a strike.
- Getting a call from Jon's wife, Joy, when Jon was being wrongly accused by our corrupt cops of driving drunk (he had a. not drunk anything and b. was approached while gassing up his vehicle). Long story of its own. I got to hear it at the bowling alley after Jon got home.
- Watching the redneck in the lane next to ours break it down to "My Humps" along with us.
- Seeing Josh take a spill into the lane on his first frame (they didn't have enough shoes for everyone right away for some reason, and he slid right onto his butt in his sock feet).
- Watching Seth do his surfer bowling maneuver (he would roll the ball, then crouch down and thrown his right arm out behind him and just hold that position while he waited for the ball to hit the pins. He didn't even realize that he did it. I, of course, had to mimic it badly for a good laugh. "Do I do that?!").
- Getting a strike and having everyone come up and try to give me a high-five. I would always hold my hands up as high as I could, and I almost got a couple slaps in the face for it.
- ManKarl. Yeah, that was worth mentioning again.
- Getting to see teenage drama and thinking "It couldn't have been like that, could it?"
- Seeing the guy on the opposite lane from us call Josh over and ask, "What are the ties for?"
- Being in lane next to a lady who had brought a pop-up CRIB to the alley and had her 1-year old with her. I'm not sure I would want my child to be around that much second hand smoke. At least she was in a good lane. All the teenagers went over randomly and played with the baby.

All in all, it was a really good evening. I never hang out with the teenagers (or even barely talk to them), and I think they were thinking the same thing about me. But after we got in there, and we all realized we just wanted to have a lot of fun, everyone loosened up, and I was part of the gang. I'm glad I could be there as more of a friend rather than the chaperone. Who knows .. maybe I'll be the one to set something up the next time for everyone.

Or maybe I'll go get a drink.