good story :) sometimes the pictures need explaining, sometimes the story needs a picture to put it all together
happy storytelling!
Kelley
· 9 months ago
Hilarious! I actually went to Zodos today at lunch for a quick game with a friend, but all the lanes were taken due to this tourney....Too bad I did not know it was you guys!!
BTW, pretty sure I look just like the pic when I bowl.
Steve Woodruff
· 9 months ago
I never have understood how bowling lanes stand up to the punishment. I think they're made from kryptonite trees.
Bdot
· 9 months ago
Are those rented shoes? I wonder what stories THEY could tell. Never mind, I don't think I want to know.
Cam Beck
· 9 months ago
When you have a weapon in your arsenal like your writing, you don't use photos to tell your story unless it's really remarkable. :)
Ann Handley
· 9 months ago
Thanks for the comments, all...
@bdot: Yes -- shoes are rented, and closed with a Velcro flap, to boot. Which seems fitting given my general lack of coordination there. I'm quite sure that the laces would have proved challenging.
@cam beck -- Thank you. This photo was it for me.. particularly since I had an entirely different picture in my head of how I looked bowling. I thought I was more fluid and graceful... then I saw the evidence to the contrary!
Peter Kim
· 9 months ago
I'm thinking we may have to have a Wii Sports bowl-a-thon at the B2B Forum in June.
Mack Collier
· 9 months ago
Can you imagine the reaction of the guy that buffs the lanes if he was walking by at this moment? That ball would have been his life flashing before his eyes.
Christian Gulliksen
· 9 months ago
You can't teach people to lob balls like that, Handley. Pure awesomeness and very fun to watch.
Katybeth
· 9 months ago
Well, did you at least get a strike for the team in the other lane? And your shoes matched your shirt--pretty darn stylish!
Thanks for the laugh after a very long week.
Drew McLellan
· 9 months ago
Ann,
Someone did tell you that jumping is actually not a part of bowling, right?
And, I am positive if we could somehow see the other side of the visual....your concentration would be evident by the tip of your tongue sticking out from between your lips!
Drew
Burbanked
· 9 months ago
That's some serious hangtime.
I like to bowl using Newtonian physics: that is, if I hit just one pin hard enough, it will bounce around with enough force until - eventually - it hits all the other pins.
Aim? Direction? Finesse? Poppycock. Its all about pure, brute force.
Dana Ironside
· 9 months ago
Ann, I needed a good laugh tonite and you sure gave it to me. I loved that picture and at first I was like - nah that's not Ann. And then I thought well, she did say how she wasn't athletic, maybe it is her. But then I thought again, nah, it can't be. And lo and behold, it's you.
I love your ability to poke fun at yourself and have a good time no matter the situation. It's better to keep it light and fun and still enjoy than not to do at all. So kudos to you for being the last picked and still going out there and "dancin" on the lanes. Oh wait, this was bowling, not dancing! :)
Jo Tyler
· 9 months ago
well I'd say you're VERY athletic, Ann! You appear to be bowling, playing basket ball, and landing a Triple Salchow all at the same time! :-)
John Wall
· 9 months ago
Damn, I can see why you are afraid of falling!
blog nerd
· 9 months ago
my question is: when you were done with the release did you end up with your back to the pins? Because, THAT, my friend, would be BRILLIANT.
Laura
· 9 months ago
Hey. I know that butt.
And that release technique.
Using an assumed name, I assume?
L.
euonymous
· 9 months ago
Lanes are made of hard rock maple wood. There's a reason they call it that. Trying to cut it with a saw is more likely to burn out the saw and char the wood than cut it. Impressive stuff. Kitchen floors used to be made of that. The United States used to have forests full of it.
larzini
· 9 months ago
"more Eeyore than Seabiscuit"
That's just spectacular. Be sure to wear your wrist strap at the Wii Sports bowl-a-thon.
As a New Jersey native with family in Boston, I was always amazed at the existence of candlepin bowling. Must be experienced in real life, doesn't exist on the Wii.
Ann Handley
· 9 months ago
@katybeth - Believe it or not, I actually manage to land a few strikes... *IN MY OWN LANE*. I know.. what a weird alignment of the planets possibly caused that, right? ; )
@Drew -- It's *as if* you were watching me... how did you know?
@Burbanked -- I love that... "Poppycock. It's all brute force." My problem was that the force was improperly aimed. Apparently "loft" doesn't help.
@Jo -- That's why I love you.. it's all perspective!
@blognerd -- ha! NEXT TIME...!
Ann Handley
· 9 months ago
@euonymous -- Learn something new every day. Thanks for that!
@larzini -- I was a young adult before I even knew balls CAME in bigger sizes. And not to beat the same drum... but the small balls really are easier to handle!! (Just sayin'...)
Julie Roads
· 9 months ago
You need to know that I didn't immediately realize that person in the pic was you. The black sleeves looked like arms and the hair - against the neon of the bowling alley - looked like an afro. So I thought it was some kind of 70's throwback. Only made it more hilarious to realize that was your adorable self.
I will be sure to take you bowling - because from the looks of this, you'll make me look way good.
Jenn aka Future Mama
· 9 months ago
Wow! That is so funny! Don't worry I'm not good at bowling either!
Jenn Calling Home
· 9 months ago
Wow, incredible form. I don't even know how that's possible! And you're going to freak, because I'm just some random blogger, but I actually learned to bowl on those lanes in Jr. high; only, it wasn't called Zodos back then. And my family used to go to "Breakfast Bowl" (You'd get breakfast and a few games) on Sunday mornings (after church, I'm pretty sure). So much for bloggy coincidences :)
GiGi
· 9 months ago
Ann-can't believe that's you. Thought it was an afro, too! Hmm...some things are better left to our mind's eye of how we think we look in certain situations rather than actually seeing it...but...it does make for a good laugh, right? Funny post and good sense of humor. And, once again, I feel like I was there! A picture isn't worth a thousand of your words!
Cass
· 9 months ago
Ah, Ann, your bowling looks better than mine. You don't want to know. . . .
When we lived in a "gentrified" neighborhood on Pittsburgh's North Side, one of our friends refinished floors for a living -- bowling alley floors. Let me tell you, the old wood floors in his 4-story brownstone outshone every other floor in the neighborhood! It was just a little bit eerie.
Thanks for the laugh. You write a treat, as my grandmother would have said.
Cass (off to the vet now with Connie and Dion!)
Karen Swim
· 9 months ago
Ann, I would pick you for my team! :-) You've got quite an arm...for pitching! ;-) Seriously though the best part of bowling is the laughter and company and in your defense the ball did at least stay in your lane.
Tabitha Dunn
· 8 months ago
So funny - I think I look like that when I bowl on our Wii in the living room although I am more of a lunger than a spinner. Nice that you were my neck of the woods - I live in Santa Barbara and was just at Zodo's two weeks ago for a six year old girl's birthday party. That was so fun to watch-some impressive bowling positions too!
Too funny, I love the picture. You know its like a double edged sword, having no captions can open your minds to boundless limits of your imagination while on the other hand having a caption opens more doorways too, both are good :-)
Lori Magno
· 8 months ago
Poetry in motion. You are fabulous!
Percy Bisque Silley
· 8 months ago
Imagine the menace this individual would represent at Duckpin. The thing would go like ninety-plus miles an hour and be like a hardball in a professional pitcher's hands.
Balls are hardier in New England and last longer, even if they be smaller.
Scott
· 7 months ago
That's hilarious (about "balls")! Johnny Carson once had a guest who said she didn't play tennis because she didn't like balls hitting her face--and Carson replied, "I believe that's called testiphobia!" There was also a film, "Flashpoint" (1984), in which a woman sarcastically asks two law-enforcement officers' if they're going to the policeman's ball. One of them replies, "We're Border Patrol, ma'am, we don't have balls!"
And these days alot of women talk about other women "not having the balls" to do something or other! That's even more nonsensical than the idea of women "fucking" men!
Peg
· 2 months ago
Ann, I thought of you this week, when I was bowling with new co-workers, a night after work. My first or second throw, the ball seemingly flew out of my hand and jumped over into someone else's lane. I cost the surprised guy in the other lane his turn, because it counted as his third ball, and it went straight into the gutter. If anything, my bowling only deteriorated, after that. My great comfort was thinking of this story, and the very good company I am keeping here. But seriously, what is about writers and "being stunningly unathletic..."? and that weird "on the outside looking in" feeling, that accompanies times like this...
All Comments
happy storytelling!
BTW, pretty sure I look just like the pic when I bowl.
@bdot: Yes -- shoes are rented, and closed with a Velcro flap, to boot. Which seems fitting given my general lack of coordination there. I'm quite sure that the laces would have proved challenging.
@cam beck -- Thank you. This photo was it for me.. particularly since I had an entirely different picture in my head of how I looked bowling. I thought I was more fluid and graceful... then I saw the evidence to the contrary!
Thanks for the laugh after a very long week.
Someone did tell you that jumping is actually not a part of bowling, right?
And, I am positive if we could somehow see the other side of the visual....your concentration would be evident by the tip of your tongue sticking out from between your lips!
Drew
I like to bowl using Newtonian physics: that is, if I hit just one pin hard enough, it will bounce around with enough force until - eventually - it hits all the other pins.
Aim? Direction? Finesse? Poppycock. Its all about pure, brute force.
I love your ability to poke fun at yourself and have a good time no matter the situation. It's better to keep it light and fun and still enjoy than not to do at all. So kudos to you for being the last picked and still going out there and "dancin" on the lanes. Oh wait, this was bowling, not dancing! :)
:-)
And that release technique.
Using an assumed name, I assume?
L.
That's just spectacular. Be sure to wear your wrist strap at the Wii Sports bowl-a-thon.
As a New Jersey native with family in Boston, I was always amazed at the existence of candlepin bowling. Must be experienced in real life, doesn't exist on the Wii.
@Drew -- It's *as if* you were watching me... how did you know?
@Burbanked -- I love that... "Poppycock. It's all brute force." My problem was that the force was improperly aimed. Apparently "loft" doesn't help.
@Jo -- That's why I love you.. it's all perspective!
@blognerd -- ha! NEXT TIME...!
@larzini -- I was a young adult before I even knew balls CAME in bigger sizes. And not to beat the same drum... but the small balls really are easier to handle!! (Just sayin'...)
I will be sure to take you bowling - because from the looks of this, you'll make me look way good.
When we lived in a "gentrified" neighborhood on Pittsburgh's North Side, one of our friends refinished floors for a living -- bowling alley floors. Let me tell you, the old wood floors in his 4-story brownstone outshone every other floor in the neighborhood! It was just a little bit eerie.
Thanks for the laugh. You write a treat, as my grandmother would have said.
Cass (off to the vet now with Connie and Dion!)
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Chat Catcher Test
Balls are hardier in New England and last longer, even if they be smaller.
And these days alot of women talk about other women "not having the balls" to do something or other! That's even more nonsensical than the idea of women "fucking" men!