STORY OF THE WEEK

This story involves a boy, a first date, and a bowling ball. Put those together and what do I get? Complete and utter humiliation.

I love and hate bowling. I’m just straight up not good at any kind of sport (can you really categorize bowling as a sport? Hmmmm), but bowling—sometimes I think I could say I’m pretty darn good, but other times, I wouldn’t want anyone to know I even attempt the wretched game. Usually, when asked, I turn down the opportunity to bowl. I never know if it’s going to be an on-day or an off-day for me. I gotta keep up my good reputation, you know. Well, one time I went bowling. And this is how it went down:

I liked a boy and he liked me, but we weren’t quite at that stage when we were going to say how we feel. It was all very new to me. In fact, I thought this young fellow strongly disliked me. So when he asked for my number after months of teasing and disapproving glances, I was quite surprised. I’m not sure what number date it was when we decided to go bowling, but I do know it was still early on in figuring the situation out. We went with a few of his friends. That’s already humiliating enough! Do you know what I mean? You’re on a date with a guy, you’re in a new environment trying to see where you fit in, and then along come his friends. That always seems to make things worse. Especially when his friends are definitely not the kind of friends you would be found with. Not necessarily because they’re bad or anything, but rather they just aren’t your cup of tea. Now, instead of just having to try and impress your date, you’ve got to impress the friends too so that they can give your date a good honest opinion of you after you’re home safe in bed rerunning the evening’s events through your head. That can definitely make things awkward.

So, there I was at a bowling alley with my unreliable record of bowls, a boy I was trying to impress, and his little group of friends. The night was already starting out bad. I remained optimistic though, and determined to have a good time. My date bowled and he bowled well. Great. I got up and bowled. I bowled not so well. Great, again. My date started giving me bowling tips and I did my best to try and do exactly what he said. I wasn’t leaving that alley without showing some grit! Unfortunately, I have a bad track record of trying to impress. I finally got up there, arm thrown full back for a great swing straight down the middle of the lane. I was completely tense with emotion and the greasy ball was getting heavy in my hand. As I threw up that arm, all of the sudden that blasted ball flew and boy, did it fly. It didn’t fly forward, though. It flew straight out to my RIGHT, across my lane and right over to the lane next to mine just in time as a bowler got up to throw the perfect bowl, tripping over my own ball, and losing balance! I yelped. Yep. YELPED. I couldn’t believe what I had just done! Not only was that embarrassing, it was just plain stupid. Gone went that good impression for the boy AND the friends.

I don’t remember how the rest of the night went, but I do remember replaying that horrid display of incoordination in my mind over and over. I can tell you, though, I did have another date with that young man. In fact, it was the start of a long and delightful friendship. I suppose my stupidity doesn’t always turn out for the worse. But I bet nobody could top a more embarrassing game of bowling! I dare you to try.

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I will be featuring a dating story once a week. Please feel free to submit your story and share it! Next week's topic is "Most Embarrassing Date." Submit entries to: askanabellehere@gmail.com. Looking forward to your exciting stories!