...make that, bowling with a stranger.
That's right, I'm at it again. Few know about my road trip with a stranger two years ago. Fewer know about my blind date with a stranger over one year ago. No one knows about the lunch meeting I had with a stranger shortly before school started! Well, this year, I'm at it again. Answering and posting ads to meet strangers and get different viewpoints on what people observe and how they live.
If requested, I'll post my notes about the last times, but this time...
....I wanted to go bowling. I haven't been bowling since I've been here. At first I was just feeling lonely and wanted to get out and do something other than dancing. So, after a few failed attempts, I posted a simple ad to go out bowling. Nothing amorous. No descriptions about my age or my physical/mental characteristics.
Boy did I get quite a few responses. I had to pull my ad just so I can go through them all. Most of the guys that posted were either substantially older (I seem to get a lot of that; still don't know how I feel about it), or a bit too young, which I automatically translate to a lower maturity level. Nothing against people who just became old enough to drink, well maybe a bit of apprehension, but I digress.
I've done back and forth with a couple of people (next in line for bowling, if they're up for the weekend). But one caught my attention. Didn't say anything about himself, and didn't use perfect grammar (no, not text speak). Instantly tipped off that either this person was illiterate, or english wasn't his first language, I decided to meet up and BOWL!
Drawback one: No pics or names were exchanged. Remedied by text messaging and quizzing the guy that called me out in the bowling ally about the last text I sent. Passed with flying colors.
So while waiting for a lane to open up, we chat. I feel guilty because I could not understand what he said his name was. He had to spell it out for me. Maybe not guilty so much as embarrassed. He said he was from Pakistan, but lived here for 15 years working at a gas station. He said he liked it here because of the desert climate. After quizzing me about the geographical location (and me passing with flying colors), he stated that not many people he asks knows where Pakistan is. We don't talk politics. He said that he also lived in California, but didn't like it after two years because it rained too much. And he seemed as if he were treated well all this time, but I didn't pry too much into that. I also didn't ask his age, but if I had to guess, I would say he was in his 40s.
Lane opened up! As usual, my bowling was terrible, but he said I was doing fine. He on the other hand did very well. He swore up and down he wasn't a professional, and that he hadn't bowled in...about two years? Why was he bowling almost 200s every game?? I barely bowled 100...well maybe twice, but that's as high as I went. Man, did I suck, whereas he claimed his success was just luck. Every strike, spare made was met with a pound. Almost all pounds, except one 'high-five.' By pound, I mean the 'terrorist fist-jab' that someone commented on a while back as a response to the Obama pound made during his campaign with his wife. Interesting, yet natural; I went with that flow effortlessly.
Come later to find out (after a wager), that he was in a league at his job!! Hmph! Luck indeed, but he kept insisting that he doesn't bowl that way all the time. Right. Our ultimate combined score of 233 was NOT because of me by any means.
After three games (well I did improve a bit), he dropped me off at the bus stop (since I refused a ride to my home miles away), and that was that. He texted to make sure I was home. Unsure of if there will be a future bowl time with him, but I had fun...being embarrassed by my bad bowling, and catching one of his bad jokes about a woman whose boobs were about to escape from her too small camisole/tank top.
"I think those are fake. She must be using them to clean the ball." I couldn't help but smirk at his observation, though I'm sure they were real, just huge and strategically taped into her too-small top. She already had a man, what did she have to prove? But I digress.
Language barrier notwithstanding, mission accomplished. Dude knows how to bowl, and his humility made the sting of constant defeat very light. He's almost like me with the excuses, versus just taking compliments.
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