bowling
Originally uploaded by Tokyorosa
The Photo
David's rented bowling shoes ($2). An hour of bowling ($16--way too expensive, though compared to karaoke in Ginza, a bargain, even with two-dollar shoe rentals). Who? David (Poochie), Lu Ann (Abalone), Lu Ann's school buddy Rose (Fudge), and me (Edna), your genial hostess.
My bowling name is Edna after Edna Pontellier, the main character in Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening. Here is a quote from the novel:
She was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her.
I was reading this novel for a class--perhaps American lit, though I don't really remember--the last time I went bowling. That was a long time ago, in another lifetime perhaps. Or maybe it only seems that way because bowling used to be sandwiched between drinking and karaoke in an evening that we called Drunkenbowlingkaraoke--the understanding being that drunken was an absolutely necessary precursor to bowling and karaoke.
Drunkenbowlingkaraoke went like this: We--we being Melissa (Grandma Betty), Melissa's boyfriend Chris (don't recall his bowling name), Matthew (M. Proust) and I (Edna P.)-- would start out drinking, drink until we were drunk enough to bowl, bowl while continuing to drink, then, plastered, do karaoke. It was nice because the bar that hosted the karaoke was located in the bowling alley. The place was, of course, a dive, but the karaoke was free and they had $2 drink specials (a far cry from the $25 per person per hour karaoke places in Tokyo).
Tonight Lu Ann had an O'Doules. Rose and I had Diet Cokes. Dave had nothing. We bowled for an hour. The best score (110) went to Rose.
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