Sunday, May 15, 2005

Gutter ball Mom

Ugh.

It started out simply enough. The school sent home a flyer about the Mother-Son bowling party and I filled in our names and sent it back with $$.

Today, we set out in the car. I had seen Joanne (the mom in charge) last week, and said "Where is that again?" and she mentioned the name of the bowling alley. "That's over in Yorthtron, right?" "Yes, 5th ave". No problem.

We set out with about 10 minutes to get there, which was plenty of time. My little guy was holding my hand and he was so excited that he was practically skipping (in a cool, almost 8 year old and I'm no Momma's boy sort of way) when we crossed the street to go into the bowling alley.

The *empty* bowling alley.

Very empty. Houston, we have a problem.

I asked the bored teenager at the counter, "is there a school party here today?" and got a shrug. "No, maybe at Hilltop." Hilltop would be 15 mintues away. #$%^&*#$. I had no one to call. Most of the other Moms I know at school are friends of my daughter's parents, so they would not be as likely to attend.

Got to Hilltop. Realized I was in the once again starring in the "action feature" The Only Car In The Parking Lot. At this point my son sighed and quietly said "We'll never find it now." You can not imagine what a little knife to the heart it was. Yay, mother of the year, right here.

At this point I got pissed, and determined to find this steeenking bowling alley even though I had no idea where I was headed. I brainstormed, and had an idea, but it was a long shot. I called Mr. Carly, who I knew had this guy Pete's number in his cell phone. Pete's wife was likely to be at this thing. About ten minutes later I got the info I needed. It was 10 minutes away from the first bowling alley I had gone to, but in the opposite direction from Hilltop. A few blocks more down 5th ave than I had gone the first time, and I would have been there. Dammit!

We got there almost an hour late. Frankly, the thought of one less hour wearing those shoes (ewww) was fine with me. My consolation prize was Joanne saying to me "Well there you are, I wondered where you were, it's not like you to flake out and forget something like this." That's a positive statement, right? I think it is. I'm going to run with it. As a bonus, we were that much closer to the lukewarm pizza.* My son forgave me as soon as he saw his friends, but this just is NOT a scrapbooky sort of memory.

*Oh yeah, I bowled sucky too. By the 7th frame I had a whopping 50 and they mercifully cut the game short for the aforementioned pizza. Esssplain to me why people love this game? (Marco?)

6 comments:

BTExpress said...

People love bowling that have 50 in the second or third frame. People that have 50 in the seventh, usually don't like bowling very much.

Alisa said...

I can empathize.

My father spent several years of his career in the Marine Corps bowling for the Eastern Marine Corps League. When he got out, he went professional. He and my mother still bowl in leagues (he's trying to get on the Senior Bowlers Pro thing). My mother has a good average and is usually #1 in the women's league.

I, on the other hand, got a C in Bowling 101 at KU and am the laughing joke of the family. So whenever there is a group outting, I get my own bumper lanes (still).

I'm glad that you found the bowling ally. I probably would not have bitten my tongue at that lady and would have stated, "Gee, yah, amazing how close this is to 5th. Your directions were dead on. How I missed it, I don't know."

Anonymous said...

that's the problem.... both bowling alleys were on 5th ave, about 20 or so blocks apart from each other. Grrrr.

~Carly

Weary Hag said...

Carly,
I know you didn't intend this to be comical, but I had to chuckle while reading part way through because I did the same thing once when my daughter was little ~ only it was a mom/daughter roller skating event and we totally drove to the wrong rink ~ ending up an hour late. At least I didn't have to make any kind of impressive score once I got there. However, seeing me try to stand up on a pair of skates was kinda laughable.
Kids are so forgiving ... aren't they?

Shelby said...

I agree with btexpress up there. I bowled a 209 once through nine frames, then I had to leave. But like the others, I am glad you made it to the alley.

tao1776 said...

I havn't bowled in years and your post reminds me why. Now pizza! That's a different story. The family outtings planned by the school, or scouts, etc...are always memorable, are they not? I have froze to death in the top row of baseball games, lost kids at amusement parks and have endured other parents attempts to impress me with how wonderful their life is because of how wonderful they are....Now it's grand kids. But I can send them home. Cool!

Things will get better... right?

I distinctly remember a day in... maybe February?  I remember the moment, but not what day it was. I was sitting at work thinking about plan...