Don't Judge a Bowler By Her Form

Some friends brought over their Nintendo Wii. I was totally content to abstain from play. But noooooo.....everyone said, "Oh, come on, you have to try it."

I don't play computer games. Hubby is the gamer in our family, not me. Ms. Pac Man was my speed back in the day. Here's why. What I am about to say is going to sound silly, but it is the truth. I don't like to play games where I can't win. There, I said it. Computer games aren't my thing, and I don't derive any intrinsic joy from playing and not winning. You know how competitive I am. So there should be no surprise there. But to be a good sport, I gave in. This is what they said that convinced me. "Oh, it's so much better than real bowling. We're in Hawaii and we're all barefoot. There are no shoes and there are no balls." Yeah, and I just kept thinking that with a Wii there aren't any cheater guard rails, either, that prevent gutter balls.

My turn came to bowl. To play the Wii bowling game you press this on your remote, and you depress that, and then you line yourself up on the lane, and then squeeze this one button and release. "It's just like regular bowling," they kept on. Right. And I just made a confession that I don't like to play games where I can't win. Including bowling. Well, I kept flubbing up the order of squeezing, aiming, and releasing the remote. The game screen even showed the fans ducking as I hurled my bowling ball, er, Wii remote, at them, and not at the pins. Obviously I had my form all wrong. Some certain husbands politely let me know. Can you picture this? They re-explained the directions, each time getting slower, and slower, and more detailed, because I couldn't bowl using Wii. They did such a fabulous job of explaining that I bowled strike after strike and got some spares, too. And I was so proud of myself! I didn't even win. But the point is that I had fun and did so much better than I imagined. Needless to say the hubbies were shocked. How could I possibly be doing so well in the game? I just followed their directions, their numerous, and detailed directions, uh hem, right? It was either that or my unruly competitive spirit that got me to a respectable score. Take your pick.