Striking out .....

Every Saturday night from August til April my husband and I go bowling.

Yes ... Bowling.

What has the reputation as being the middle class form of a good night out.

After years of him being on the road from Monday morning to Friday evening the company decides to "eliminate his position". Ok so that was tough, 28 years with a company that he was loyal too just shows him the door.
In the end it works out OK because he lands another job relatively quickly and we are back on track.
The job he lands consists of a 160 mile round trip jaunt everyday.
This means he leaves at 6:30 am and gets home around 7:00 in the evening.(and I'm being nice when I say 7:00)

So in a sense he is still "on the road" from Monday to Friday.
Not at all what I envisioned when he took this new job.
I thought after 5 years of being a "single" Mom during the week I would finally have the help of another parent to raise the two yungins that live here,turns out not so much, but the man does bust his butt working so it is what it is.

Due to those crazy hours I came to the conclusion that we needed to get out of the house at least once a week to have "us" time.
Sooo I came up with an activity I hadn't done since I was pregnant with my now 12 yr old and had to quit the season early because my stomach would no longer allow me to see the ball I wanted to throw.
While my husband and I enjoy each others company we can also be classified as "social butterflies" we like hanging out with friends and family too.

I called the local bowling alley and asked if they had any openings on their mixed Saturday night league.
To my surprise "Mark" was still working the desk and remembered me and said the league had just started the previous week but it wasn't too late to come on down and start this season.
My husband and I do not make up a "team" ourselves so we ask my friend Denise if she wants to get in on the league.
The 3 of us show up and start bowling.
We realize that we are still 2 players short of a team but Mark assures us that there will be folks hanging around looking to join a team... Stragglers like us who do not have enough players to form a whole team either.
Sure enough the first night we bowl Alita is sitting behind us in one of the booths watching her sisters team destroy our team.
Her sister asks if we need a bowler and looking like a rag tag team of 3 that we are, we assure her that we do and ta da .... Alita is now on our team, and the girl can BOWL GOOD ! Lucky us !
Then Alitas nephew joins us the next week and we are FINALLY a team of 5.

The team has changed some since the first year .. Matt the 19 yr old nephew left us to pursue college and sigh GIRLS .. and we have picked up another Mom of 3 to take his spot.

The name of our first team was JAM'D ... an acronym of all of our first initials. Thankfully 2 of us had the same first initial and we thought it fit since we were all sorta jammed together on this team.

Losing Matt however did put our team name in a Jam because the new gal "Ruby" didn't make our team name work anymore.
It was time to find a new name.
We threw quite a few around and used something lame for a week when Alita comes in the next week and announces that she has it.
The new name is:

4 Queens and a Jack !

Yes my poor husband is stuck with 4 Queens on his team and sadly he doesn't even get to be the King. The "Queens" love the name and think it's a riot, my husband just accepts it as he is outnumbered.

My sister also is on the league although on a different team.
My brother and sil joined the league this year as well, and I convinced my oldest nephew to jump on their team to help them out. He may not have been real thrilled with it but being the good kid he is he jumped on board and it's been great getting to know him better as he gets older.

So now folks we have a few teams of "O's" on the league and we really seem to enjoy hanging with each other on Saturday nights ... yes drinking some beers and hanging out in the still allowed in PA smoky bowling alley.
Middle class 60's throwbacks ? Yeah I suppose but who else can say they hang out with their husband, brothers, sister and nephew every Saturday night and have fun doing it ?

With the exception of 1 brother who lives out of state all of us "O" siblings are together under one roof for 3-4 hours each week.
Fun sibling rivalry at it's best.
My team kicked my brothers teams butt last night 3 outta 4 but, but who's counting right ? It's all for fun and bonding ;)

The owner of the bowling alley is also someone I graduated with.
George is the person who keeps me up on everyone in our class: who's working where, who married who, who is now divorced, who got arrested, who died etc.
Some of the memories we laugh over some we shake our head at because we can't believe how they "turned" out.

So my blog friends I suggest that while bowling may not be your "thing" get out there and join something. Bond with folks as a team, enjoy each others company with some friendly competition. Then when you are dragging your butt around on Sunday morning cursing yourself for not coming home earlier the night before, remember that you had a good time and you can't wait to do it again next week :)