a rekindled love

this story starts way back in elementary school. now my memory isn't that great so i'm sure this will be the vaguest story ever. i was in 6th grade in a school that went up to 8th. 6th, 7th and 8th graders were pretty much separated from the 'younger' kids and we got to participate in more activities, of course, right? (this is when i started to play basketball, one of my all time loves) ... but also we got to take part in a bowling league after school if we wanted. and i did. i must have bowled for 2 years on the league, then the school closed and so was the end of my bowling career. my mom used to bowl every week on an adult league and i would go with her and watch. i loved to bowl so much that my mom bought me my very own ball. but as things do so often, bowling got pushed aside. once in a while i would bust out my ball and bowl with some friends. but nowhere even close to often enough.

fast forward to married life. now, those of you that know carlos, know that the 'social scene' is not one of his favorites. and i would guess that bowling falls into that category. "i get bored after a couple frames," he tells me. he's humored me two, maybe three, times in our 13 years of marriage. and i respect him enough to not push him to go with me. besides, we have enough other things in common to keep us busy. (i will say that he has actually gone once since we've lived in cali. and i'm sure it was only because our friends, greg and angie, asked us to go with them.) ...

to get back to my story ...

once we started having kids, forget about 'me time'. well, not completely, but at least all the fringe stuff. so my ball (like carlos' golf clubs) sat up on a shelf in the garage collecting dust and who knows what else. maybe it's just me, but as a mom i've lost all identity. i've become mom and wife and coming up a distant, distant third myself. carlos often tells me,
"go and do something for yourself." my response, "i don't know what i would do."
"go to starbucks, grab a coffee and read." read? "no way. i've never enjoyed reading."
"why don't you scrapbook?" "because i'm already too far behind that it stresses me out just thinking about it."
"go for a run." yeah right, i really hate to exercise. BUT if i could play basketball, now you're talking. (i think that's the only 'identity' i've held onto all these years.)

so that brings me to last night. i was out bowling until 12:30am, yes AM! with greg and angie. (and you all know how much i LOVE to sleep) i had such a great time. i actually bowled pretty well, for not bowling for years and years. but not as well as greg ... he bowled a 300!! what a blast! greg and angie are on a couple leagues, i'm hoping to be able to join them some day!!

... so?, my rekindled love? ... BOWLING!

(sorry to those of you that thought this was going to be all mushy or spiritual),
nic