Las chusas de la suerte

“The bowling alley is the poor man’s country club.” – Sanford Hansell

The Lucky Strikes… (las chusas de la suerte)

that is our team name. While we toyed with "el gringo barachos" (the drunk white people), we decided we needed a name that was more powerful and scary. Intimidating, right? Oh, and we had talked Victor into joining our team, and certainly he doesn't fit into the Gringo category.

Kurt was very pumped up for league bowling night and gave us a lot of “pep talks” leading up to the big night, seems he decided he was our team captain. A self appointed position, but it gives him much pleasure, so we decided to allow it (at least on the surface, because we all know Linda is really the boss). During our “pep talk” conversations, we decided we needed to have matching uniforms (which, because of our limited resources has become a matching shirt color for each night… though Brooke is working on something more official for us) and a special handshake. We also took it one step further (no surprise to anyone who knows us I am sure) and came up with a celebration technique as well (you will see more about that later in the blog).

In addition to our pep talk preparation, we also came equipped with 2 cheerleaders, as Brooke and Stefanie were still in town. While they looked for pom-poms in Quepos, seems cheerleading isn’t a big sport around here. Sad but true, and certainly something to think about if I decide to raise kids here, what in the world would my daughters do without cheerleading?

We arrived at the alley a little early to get in some practice and have a delicious pre-game meal of Bobby D’s pizza. Kurt had worn 1 white shirt to the bowling alley, and brought another one for Victor as we weren’t able to call him in advance to advise him of our uniform requirements. However, Kurt was so pumped up during practice (and it is 1000 degrees in the bowling alley) that he ended up needing the 2nd shirt for himself as his first one was drenched before we even began the official games. Victor, on the other hand, clearly came much more prepared than us and brought a towel to wipe off the sweat. That Victor is a thinker.

Here is our team photo before bowling began…notice Kurt’s shirt.

Also, when you join the league, you apparently get your names printed right on the score cards, if that doesn’t make us legit, I don’t know what does. Apparently paying $2 a week for league bowling gets you a lot.

As we were warming up, our opponents, "Parador" (the name of one of the hotels here, turns out it is the fanciest place in Manuel Antonio… sorry Lara) arrived with 6 players. Already we were out numbered. Only 5 are allowed to bowl for each game, so they swapped out a player for the 2nd game. Great strategy, we need to do some additional recruitment.

While 5 players are allowed to bowl, the lowest score gets dropped for each game, so it is a huge advantage to have an extra person. When Bobby saw that we had our 2 cheerleaders with us, he said we were welcome to have one of them bowl; to which we explained that they were only visiting and wouldn’t be able to bowl the rest of the league nights. Bobby D said no problem, turns out the league rules are very flexible (read: non-existent) so we had our 5 people. Delightful. What this also means for those of you coming to visit is: bring socks because you are bowling baby!!

After our opponents warmed up, we introduced ourselves and began to play. Bobby D’s has 2 “pin boys” for league night… too much work for one person I am sure. Those 2 guys worked their asses off… yet somehow didn’t get as sweaty as Kurt. While I would say it is because they are Tico and used to the heat, that would only be true for one of them. Though frankly, in Kurt’s defense, they don’t have an intensity level anywhere close to his.

While we were pumped up and ready to go, the Ticos were very good. Crap. Seems bowling is more popular in Costa Rica than we would have expected…guess they need an extra past time as basketball is clearly not an option. However, we weren’t going to let their abilities rain on our parade, we were going to have a good time and show them what the Gringos are made of.

As we were bowling we realized there were 2 glaring differences between their team and our team:

1. they didn’t wear the provided bowling shoes, they all wore their own everyday shoes

2. they drank sodas and not beers… what is up with that?

So we bowled away, and gave it an earnest effort, despite the strikes that kept occurring in the lane next to ours. The first game Linda and I didn’t do so well, but came back the second game to show our true bowling abilities.

Kurt, straight down the center.

Biggs, pulling her weight for the team.

Unfortunately at the end we lost by a total of 8 points, but not too bad for our first showing. We will get them next time.

After we were done playing we took a group photo. I might just have to frame one of these photos when I get home. I certainly need a regular reminder of my time as a member of La chusa del la suerte.

After we finished bowling, we hung out for awhile so people could play pool and Kurt and Angel could have another dance off. Brooke and Linda also had a little dance around of their own, while I provided the backup singing for “My Humps.” I would post the video, but really, the last thing you want is to hear me sing. I need to learn to shut up when I am behind the video camera…frankly that would be a beneficial thing to do in all areas of my life.

After leaving the bowling alley, we decided that we just HAD to take Stef and Brooke for a little karaoke. Brooke sang “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and had all the Ticos cheering. Especially the “hottest” lawyer in town, he just couldn’t get enough of her. Let me make clear, when I say “hottest” I mean the most well known and powerful… but he is also apparently a little bit of a drunk, and falls asleep at bars, as he was doing here.

Not that I had planned to, but I have officially decided I am not going to get arrested here. If the drunk, sleeping lawyer is my best chance at getting off, I’d rather not take my chances. Here he is
I am going to close with some videos … the first is of my amazing bowling skills. Sorry the video is sideways, but Stef didn’t realize the problem with the sideways filming… but even sideways you can easily see my mad skills.

This second clip, which is far more important, is the celebration technique we came up with for when someone got a strike or a spare. If you could have seen the Ticos’ faces when they first saw this, you would have died of laugher. I think they didn’t know what to make of us at first…but they warmed up to us quickly and we had a great time with them. You may have also noticed this technique in my bowling video, though it will be demonstrated more clearly here.

If you watch the video closely, you will see that Linda and I were so excited about the bowling league that we actually jumped at times that we weren’t supposed to. While it is not quite as good as Kurt’s "impressive video," it will certainly bring about some laugher. And just think people, this is only the beginning... who knows what will happen in the championship.