the curve ball is the bane of my existence

Oh my brothers.......

How I hate the curve ball in bowling. It's secrets elude me like a leprechaun jealously hoarding it's pot o' gold. I just can't settle into a consistent toss. There are too many variables.....line, speed, and spin. I can't make all three come together in harmony like Ebony and Ivory. I either throw it too fast with too little spin and put it in the gutter or right side of the lane, or I spin it too hard with too little speed and hit the left side of the lane. I'll tell you what though.....I sure as shit can hit the hell out of the 7 and 10 pins. The other 8 however, elude me. Case in point....here are the scores from my last two outings at bowling....which are the only two I've had in months....so that is a factor.

2 weeks ago......
110
120
120
131
These were all bowled with Dan's brown ball....which will be called "brown ball" from now on.
These games were all attempts at throwing a curve ball with a couple of straight balls for pickups.

Jade bowled the following the same night.
119
135
103
130

So, I got my ass whupped by a girl....feel free to insert your own jokes here...I know you will.

Here's how tonight went.....
91.....brown ball curve
119...brown ball curve with a couple straight brown ball throws
123...exclusively 14 pound house ball straight
165...exclusively 14 pound house ball straight
208!!!exclusively 14 pound house ball straight, and my highest game ever (I may have bowled a 209 once, but I can't remember, I just know it's only my 3rd game over 200 ever) That same game I had only one open frame in the 6th. I bowled 4 strikes in a row to close out the game. Unfortunatley, the rest of the closed frames were spares.....I am Abe Froman.....the spare king of Chicago.

Jade's totals:
109
124
115
99
111

New fact...Jade finally stopped paying 4 dollars a night for shoes and bought her own. They are absolutely kick ass!!!! I almost want to buy the same pair except for the fact it would be a waste of money as I have a perfectly good pair that's almost brand new. The ones she owns are white with 2 electric shiny blue stripes like old Adidas with the heel counter that is the same shiny electric blue.....they rock! I think she paid less than 30 bucks for them total, so they will pay for themselves in 8 nights of bowling.

I miss bowling every Sunday with they guys. I would like to see how they are playing. I' m glad Aaron sends me the scores and averages.....but it's not the same. I think Jade and I are going to try to join a league so we can play every week at a consistent date and time. So far, our bowling is sporadic, and I feel my average is suffering because of it. Usually when we play it is a bunch of teenagers and early college kids that have no concept of etiquette. Tonight, for example, the people next to us didn't wait their turn. Not only that....they used both of our balls as their own. A couple lanes down there were college kids screaming and acting stupid. It reminded me of my early days of bowling and I was embarassed that I acted similar to these monkeys.....ahhhh...the experience of age. Regardless, it was distracting as hell...I chalk my 123 total up to distraction. After that, I was able to ignore it pretty well. As for the bastardly spin ball. I just don't know how people do it. I see people do it all the time, and I am in awe. I'm positive Gasca is a machine and not human. But, I've seen the same kind of shots out of Sean and Aaron. I am extremely impressed with their ability, and I am pretty much sure it isn't for me. I think I'm going to stick with the straight ball from here out. It's not as effective at getting strikes unless you are accurate. However, I'm not getting strikes with the spin. In fact, I'm getting more splits with that than ever before. I'll take makeable spares over rough splits any day.

"I see you rolled your way into the finals.....dios mio my friend. Me and Liam...were going to fuck you up. And, If your friend pulls his bullshit piece out and starts waving it at me, I'm going to take it away from him, shove it up his ass and pull the trigger till it goes "click"".
"Jesus"
You said it man, don't fuck with the Jesus."
(Horribly paraphrased by a drunk bastard at 1:30 in the morning)

Peace and chicken grease
-J