Bowling...

The only reason I am blogging this late on a weeknite is because I'm on such a friggin high there is no way I can sleep!!!! Let me tell you why:

So. I'm part of NLAA sports. This is a party league that hosts such things as kickball, bowling, ultimate Frisbee, softball, dodge ball, volleyball and maybe some others. I joined the Drunken Degenerates kickball team a few years back, had a great time, met some great new friends but sadly the league grew and people start behaving like douchebags so the fun died out for me. So - our old captain emailed me asking if I wanted to try the bowling out. Sure! I promptly signed up and was ready to go. She ended up having to drop out and told me to stay in and be captain. I was a little hesitant at first since I've only bowled randomly here and there and I really don’t know much about the sport except you roll a ball and hit some pins. My wonderful friends Anna and Sergio I met through the Bistro crew years and years ago were on board to play. Sergio brought on his sister, and they brought their cousin and his sister. There was our 6 person team. The normal league nights work like this – you play 3 games. 4 people play at a time. You get a point for each game you win. Everyone gets to bowl twice. They use handicaps (Thank GAWD) and they list weekly stats, etc.
First of all, I want to say my team is fucking awesome. None of us are bowlers, but we were all willing to give it a go. The gal who was going to be captain had already registered us as The Talkin Turkeys (Which I found out later - Turkey is actually a bowling term) so I kept the name and emailed the head of the league telling him I had no clue what the hell I was doing but I was willing to stay captain and do this. He was great. Explained everything, and of course it's all about the fun!
So - it began.
8 weeks flew by. We learned more and more and improved a great deal. We of course were not as good as a lot of the other players, but we had a blast every night and loved the fact that we were all getting better. Later in the season, the head of the league deemed us the most fun team. We had matching turkey shirts and hats made up for our bumper bowling Halloween evening. And for the playoffs silly hats were brought and worn. We always out drink most of our competitors. Our bar tab smoked our bowling score (Which was actually a joke in one of the league emails). Our team was teased but liked. We always had fun.
A little side note - I used to be extremely competitive. I'm not anymore. Now I'm in it for the fun. I'm older, my body is more broken, I just want to have fun and meet new people. My teammates are the same. Agave Tequila is the sponsor of the league, so I'm always supporting our sponsor and Mango Margaritas became my bowling night drink. My 5 other teammates are Hispanic and I'm Irish - yup we were also the drinking team and constantly joked about that. We really had so much fun!!!!
Tonight was the play offs. It was set up bracket style - once you lost you were out. You could stay and bowl, but you were out of the playoffs. We all planned on not making it past our 1st round and were totally ok with it. We arrived with silly hats, ordered our usual large order of food and drink and started our game. I had jammed my wrist earlier in the week in boxing class, but was determined to still play our last game of the season. We won. Holy shit!!! We were thrilled!!!
I told my team I was so proud we made it to round 2!!! Look at us rookies! We altered our line up and played the 2nd game. I got the exact same score both games, and guess what - we won again. NO WAY!!! We were ecstatic. We started the final game. I was starting to really hurt and swell up at this point. I was doing pretty well so my team had wanted me to stay in for game 3 since I was doing good, and we altered our line up again. Now - funny thing is - I didn’t realize we were in the FINALS. Yes - the captain was clueless as usual. It was about 3/4 of the way through the game that someone clued me in that we were the last 2 teams standing. WHAT!!!???? So we were going to be 2nd place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoooo!!! We were playing an awesome team - very fun group - very nice - and a blast to play. I loved it!!! What a great way to end the season.
We won.
WHAT!!!!
We won.
I think all of us were in shock at this point.
WE FUCKING WON!!!!
The head of the league cheered and pulled us all aside to take the winning team photo.
Are you kidding me!?
Our rookie team, all about the fun, WE WON THE WHOLE THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My 1st time as a captain!!!!
Yes, the other teams were not playing their best. They should have wiped the floor with us. But we won. The underdogs won.
The entire way home I couldn’t stop smiling. I even laughed a few times.
I just can’t believe we won!!!!!
I really want to say, the fact that we were relaxed, cool, fun people, a great team spirit and just all around an awesome team. We played really well. Violet bowled her best game yet. We fucking rocked. I'm so proud of my team and so proud that we won because we had fun. No drama! No bullshit! Just a great group of friends having a fantastic time. Oh and we WON!!! We are the champions. That’s right!
What a great night.
Talkin Turkeys - WE ROCK!!!!!