The Boy and I went to our chapter of the ARC’s bowling party today, and we had an absolute blast!  We had 17 bowlers and plenty of parents and caregivers in the cheering section.  And it was really hard not to catch their infectious enthusiasm.  I had the honor of running the shindig, today, which was great, because I got to learn some names, and got frequent reports on his score from a man named Russ.  He was such a trip – every time he got a spare or a strike (which was fairly frequently), he came over 4 lanes to tell me how well he did, and I could do nothing but get excited for him.  All around us, bowlers cheered for themselves and each other.  Dez, who was in the lane next to us, was one of the best bowlers, and was so proud of his final scores, I got reports on those, too.

The Boy was one of the youngest bowlers, but we matched him up with a pair who were a little younger, and all three used bumpers and a ramp.  He loves bowing, although this needing-to-use-the-ramp thing is fairly recent.  He is 10, so we get some looks sometimes when he wants to use the ramp and bumpers, but today, it didn’t matter.  He had access to bowling, pizza, cookies, and video games, so he was in hog heaven.

This is what all of those ignorant people using that word need to see and feel.  I needed something positive, and a got a big dose of it today.