Bowling with Jesus

The Christ was at our table for the WORT Bowl-a-thon a couple weekends ago.

I met a friend there and, since we were a team of 2, we got paired up with another couple fellows in the same boat. It had been a long time since I'd been bowling despite meaning to roll a couple lines for the past few years as an excuse to get out of the house.

Immediately I was presented with a few Escanaba Specials.

We were each given a clutch of raffle tickets and so, after putting my bowling shoes on and grabbing a ball that was a bit too light but had the needed space between the finger holes, I wandered down the hall to where the raffle prizes were on display.

While in line waiting for my chance to peruse the prizes, I heard a woman say "Skippy!" It was ***** and she walked over and gave me a great big hug. I hadn't seen her in a few months so it was nice to do so once again. We chatted briefly and she returned to her lane while I looked over the goodies that I just knew in my bones I was going to win. Most of them were concert tickets for shows on dates when I was unavailable and so I stuck with the couple shows I could actually attend.

With about 10 minutes to go before the bowl-a-thon was set to start, we all threw some practice balls. Mine were horrible. Lots of gutters. I just couldn't keep my arm straight. I figured that, as things went along, I'd get warmed up and roll better with the help of Jesus.

It was great fun despite my poor bowling. While my swing did get straighter after a couple frames and I think I broke the 100 mark all three games - not by a whole lot, however - I was a bit disappointed. No worries though as the two fellows we bowled with were very friendly and I had not seen my friend **** in a couple months so it was great to catch up.

Between games I ran into ***** and we chatted for a few minutes. She remarked that she had felt my wife and I would be together forever. So did I, at one time. I gave her some details from my perspective and told her that I had moved out of the marital residence and was starting my life over. ***** kindly noted that I had lost weight and looked "hot". Ha! What a lovely thing to say! She also gave me a big hug that seemed to last and last like the Energizer bunny. It was wonderful!

We also chatted about cats as ***** owns one of Piper's brothers so we had a brief cat catch up before it was again time to bowl. 

With our three games down, we were given bonus raffle tickets and I went to disperse them after I dropped off my shoes. As I strode out of the room I heard a woman call "Skippy!" again from the pit of the lanes in front of me. It took me a couple seconds to recognize her but it was *******, a friend of my wife's that I knew a little. She had been bowling with *****.

The reason that I didn't immediately recognize her was that she had lost a lot of weight due, I would shortly find out, to a battle with cancer. I hadn't seen her in years and so we caught up. She told me of her struggles with cancer but also that she had become a grandmother. *******  told me that she had tried to get a hold of my Frau via text but had been unsuccessful and so had tried another means. I wished her well in her quest and told her all I could about why she hasn't heard back which was next to nothing. In turn, I told her about my divorce and the various changes that it has spawned, both good and bad.

It was lovely to see both ***** and *******. On the way out ***** got my number and shot me a brief text. I replied saying that it was great to see her and ******* and thanked her for her ginormous hug and kind words. She replied by saying that ******* had remarked to her that it was great to see me and that they wanted to take me out one of these days. What an unexpected delight!

Hopefully ******* can get a hold of my Frau and they can relight their friendship. We can all use as many friends as we can get.