A 13-day stretch, and a Big Game
I'm presently in the middle of 13 consecutive days of work. I feel slightly disingenuous to call it 13 consecutive days because the number of hours worked is relatively low. To recap:
Mon 2/21: 8
Tue 2/22: 8
Wed 2/23: 10
Thu 2/24: 2.5
Fri 2/25: 5
Sat 2/26: 5
Sun 2/27: 4.5
Mon 2/28: 4.5
Tue 3/01: 6
Wed 3/02: 10
Thu 3/03: 10
Fri 3/04: 5
Sat 3/05: 8
I work fewer than 6 hours on 6 of those 13 days. I'm not sure what to say about it exactly. It is stressful to a degree because I still have to be in work-brain mode on a daily basis for 13 days, but it's not like I'm working 90 hours in 13 days (only 86.5). At the moment I seem to be doing okay with it.
I did, however, kind of crash out on Monday and stress myself into inaction. After going over the day in my head a little, I've determined that I felt that way because I didn't eat breakfast in the morning or otherwise hadn't eaten much in the previous day or two. I suppose that can happen when I'm flying around place-to-place like I was on Sunday, doing church, lunch with parents, flag football, and then work at the end of the night. Either that or it could have been the after-effects of going out with my coworkers and boss on Saturday night out to a comedy show in Bellevue. We were out late enough that we closed down the bars... and then I followed it with church in the morning. Then again, I didn't feel any of the negative effects of a night out on Sunday when I was doing all of that business. Who knows?
Tonight, two weeks removed from my worst bowling this season (and a week where I scored worse than any last year, too), I nearly shot a perfect game. As a matter of fact, I had 14 strikes in a row at one point tonight. It takes 12 to do the trick if you line them up right.
I started rolling very well at the end of the first game. Through an unlikely circumstance of our opponents' failure to throw a strike or a spare in the 9th and 10th frames, and one of my teammates finishing strong, I was in position to potentially win the game for us if I had a good 10th frame. The opposing team's last bowler hit all three of his strikes and in effect forced me to do the same.
I was in a very good and confident bowling head-space tonight, and as I stepped up for the 10th frame I declared to myself that this situation where I needed to throw all strikes wasn't any kind of pressure; instead, it was fun. Furthermore, I said to myself, I'm the best damn bowler in the league, I'm rolling well tonight, and I'm going to win it.
Usually I don't attack a shot with so much emotional oomph, instead I get analytical: the only way to get three strikes in the 10th is to get the first one, and I'm a coin-flip or so to get a strike on any given ball, so why shouldn't I get all three? Then if it doesn't work I sort of shrug it off, notice that I shot 220, tell myself I did my job by being above average, and move on.
I shot a 270-something game earlier in this league, I had the first 9 strikes in a row and I threw a poor shot on the 10th frame and left a big split. I was nervous at that point. Tonight when I got the first 9 I called home for the hell of it. "You'd better get down here," I told my mom. "I'm lined up and I've got the first 9." I threw a pretty good 10th shot, strike. I threw a what-I-thought-was-slightly-better 11th shot and left a solid 10-pin. Everything looked perfect, but somehow the 10 didn't fall. Then I missed the spare, having not picked up my spare ball a single time in the last half-hour or so, and finished a 288. Tonight I wasn't nervous, I was confident, I threw the ball well, and it just didn't quite work out. But it will, eventually.
Mon 2/21: 8
Tue 2/22: 8
Wed 2/23: 10
Thu 2/24: 2.5
Fri 2/25: 5
Sat 2/26: 5
Sun 2/27: 4.5
Mon 2/28: 4.5
Tue 3/01: 6
Wed 3/02: 10
Thu 3/03: 10
Fri 3/04: 5
Sat 3/05: 8
I work fewer than 6 hours on 6 of those 13 days. I'm not sure what to say about it exactly. It is stressful to a degree because I still have to be in work-brain mode on a daily basis for 13 days, but it's not like I'm working 90 hours in 13 days (only 86.5). At the moment I seem to be doing okay with it.
I did, however, kind of crash out on Monday and stress myself into inaction. After going over the day in my head a little, I've determined that I felt that way because I didn't eat breakfast in the morning or otherwise hadn't eaten much in the previous day or two. I suppose that can happen when I'm flying around place-to-place like I was on Sunday, doing church, lunch with parents, flag football, and then work at the end of the night. Either that or it could have been the after-effects of going out with my coworkers and boss on Saturday night out to a comedy show in Bellevue. We were out late enough that we closed down the bars... and then I followed it with church in the morning. Then again, I didn't feel any of the negative effects of a night out on Sunday when I was doing all of that business. Who knows?
Tonight, two weeks removed from my worst bowling this season (and a week where I scored worse than any last year, too), I nearly shot a perfect game. As a matter of fact, I had 14 strikes in a row at one point tonight. It takes 12 to do the trick if you line them up right.
I started rolling very well at the end of the first game. Through an unlikely circumstance of our opponents' failure to throw a strike or a spare in the 9th and 10th frames, and one of my teammates finishing strong, I was in position to potentially win the game for us if I had a good 10th frame. The opposing team's last bowler hit all three of his strikes and in effect forced me to do the same.
I was in a very good and confident bowling head-space tonight, and as I stepped up for the 10th frame I declared to myself that this situation where I needed to throw all strikes wasn't any kind of pressure; instead, it was fun. Furthermore, I said to myself, I'm the best damn bowler in the league, I'm rolling well tonight, and I'm going to win it.
Usually I don't attack a shot with so much emotional oomph, instead I get analytical: the only way to get three strikes in the 10th is to get the first one, and I'm a coin-flip or so to get a strike on any given ball, so why shouldn't I get all three? Then if it doesn't work I sort of shrug it off, notice that I shot 220, tell myself I did my job by being above average, and move on.
I shot a 270-something game earlier in this league, I had the first 9 strikes in a row and I threw a poor shot on the 10th frame and left a big split. I was nervous at that point. Tonight when I got the first 9 I called home for the hell of it. "You'd better get down here," I told my mom. "I'm lined up and I've got the first 9." I threw a pretty good 10th shot, strike. I threw a what-I-thought-was-slightly-better 11th shot and left a solid 10-pin. Everything looked perfect, but somehow the 10 didn't fall. Then I missed the spare, having not picked up my spare ball a single time in the last half-hour or so, and finished a 288. Tonight I wasn't nervous, I was confident, I threw the ball well, and it just didn't quite work out. But it will, eventually.