Last night, my husband and I went out to run a few errands. We hadn’t planned to eat out, but timing of our stops and our grumbling bellies said we should grab a bite.

After a nice dinner of Mexican food (enchiladas for him, a burrito for me), we found ourselves restless. A rare case of boredom struck. We didn’t want to go home, but we didn’t want to go too far. Driving into Nashville just seemed too far, and going to a local sports bar meant thick smoke and money out we didn’t want to spend. We drove around a little while, but in darkness its hard to enjoy your scenery. Then my husband had a flash of genius. He said we were going bowling.

Bowling, you may ask? Why is that genius? Because we never think of doing that until we are driving by our local bowling alley late at night after its closed. The conversation ALWAYS goes something like this:

“Bowling. We should do that some time.”

“Yeah, we should. We’ve never done that together.”

“We haven’t… that would be a fun date night.”

So, here we were, bored and bowling seemed the thing to do. Suddenly, it was date night! Apparently, everyone else in town had the same idea, though. We ended up on a waiting list similar to one you would find at a fancy restaurant on a Saturday night. About a half-hour until we could get a lane.

We both got something to drink and sat to watch others bowl. I quickly got intimidated! Everyone was so good! There were guys doing trick shots (and getting strikes with them!). There were people playing with as much effort as I give to go to bed. Yikes!

My husband asked me when was the last time I went bowling, and I had to think. Hard. I eventually had to tell him it was probably close to 15 years since I’d last went bowling!

As we sat, I told him about going bowling with my aunt when I was kid. Every summer for several years, my aunt would pick me and my brother up to go out for an afternoon. Pizza for lunch, then bowling the afternoon away! My brother and I went a few times just us once he had a car and could drive. Then I remember going with my church youth group at least once. Those tales were the extent of my bowling experience.

Finally, our turn came around, and we were sent off to lane 34 with rented shoes and hopes we didn’t end up throwing the ball behind us instead of down the lane! (Okay, maybe that was just me with that worry and visions of disaster that would rival the Stooges.) We planned to bowl one set. That would save money, and we figured we’d probably be ready to give up after one set anyway.

We picked out balls, got set up to play and away we went.

Our first game, neither of us broke 100.

Yes I said, first game. I wanted to keep playing, so my husband went and paid for a second game before the first one was through. He spoils me. I admit it. And I am grateful.

I threw more gutter balls than I care to admit to throwing. I was a little envious of the little kids beside us who had bumpers!

My husband used to play regularly with a group of musicians. I happened to have flown in to visit him when we were dating on a bowling day… it was a “no girls allowed” kind of thing, so I sat away from the group in amusement of it. As such, I didn’t pay much attention at that time, but I found my husband to have a smooth form while bowling. I told him watching him was fun, and he made it look easy. Unfortunately, he’d gotten rusty over time and pretty form didn’t help him get strikes.

Oh we both did get strikes and spares… just not enough of them to talk about.

Our second game went better than the first for me. I picked a different ball and that made all the difference in the world. A lighter ball gave me more control, and I did finally break 100.

I’m not going to win any tournaments and I won’t be joining any leagues, but I have to admit I had a TON of fun. There’s something fun about laughing at yourself when you stutter step instead of slide. When your ball heads straight for the gutter, and the pins laugh at you on screen. And for the record, I did NOT throw the ball behind me at any point.

There’s something romantic about  a bowling date with your husband of almost 4 years. You discover new things about each other, you laugh, and you are reminded some of the most fun things in life are the most simple.

I hope we go bowling again soon! It was fun. It was cheap. It was something different.