Bowling for Birthday

This past Saturday, I turned 40 (as previously mentioned), and this year, I did something different.  Usually for my birthday, I don’t do much.  Maybe a small dinner with a couple of friends. Sometimes even less.  But this year, since forty is one of those “milestone” birthdays, I thought that this year I would do something bigger.  I invited a few friends to join me for some cosmic bowling.  After all, everyone loves bowling, right?

I don’t bowl often.  In fact the last time I bowled was about two years ago at another friend’s birthday.  But I figured that bowling was a good way to get a bunch of people together, and to have some fun.  We had different bowling skill levels together, and some people bowled well, and some people… Well the point is that we had different bowling skill levels.  To me, though that doesn’t matter. You go bowling with a group of friends to cheer each other on, trade some friendly zingers and just have a good time.

The second game of the night is where we made a few realizations.  First and foremost: bowling is a sport. We came to this sport realization by realizing the pain that wrists and knees were in.  Until that moment, we all remembered bowling as something fun to do with a group of friends.  But it turns out that there’s actual athleticism involved in doing it regularly.  Which is something I suppose we all knew, but had forgotten until the pain started.

When the second match ended, we were all of one mind: we were finished, and did not have another game in us.

It was a great way to ring in my 40s, and was happy to see all the friends who came.

Side note: for those looking at turning 40, just remember…forty feels a lot like thirty-nine.

[pictures by Jessica Nelson and Daisy MacLean]