Bumper Bowling

AMF Bowling 8/24/2013

After not seeing each other for a little over three weeks, we went a couple of rounds of bumper bowling. We had enjoyed a few battles on the Kinect Sports where bowling was a sport. He would usually blow me out of the room. So I thought it would smart to challenge each other on the “big boy” lanes. We decided that we would eat after the activity so before I picked him to go to, I had been holding a delightfully refreshing Health Nut Smoothie from the Tropical Smoothie Café. He was less than pleased, but I told him I’d take him next time. We headed out to Pikesville to the AMF Bowling alley as we are allowed two free games a person being a part of BBBS. All we had to do is pay for the shoe rental. There was a slight issue because they didn’t take credit cards, so I had to use the ATM there and accept the fees. Nonetheless, we each bowled and didn’t do very well in the first game. He bowled a 74 and I bowled a 117. However, there was slight improvement in the second game as he got a few spares and landed on 101 and I had three strikes and ended up with 128.

On the plus side, unrelated to showing off our terrible bumper bowling abilities, Jayden showed signs of maturation. He was allotted $15.00 for spending today and he spent five on renting the shoes. He was told he could get a snack at the bowling alley, so he decided to get mozzarella sticks along with a Gatorade. Adding those two items together was going to bring him really close to his budget. After purchasing the Gatorade, before he opened it, he started rationalizing his decision. He realized that he was only left with a small amount of money and that maybe he didn’t need to spend the $2.59 on the Gatorade after all. After coming to his decision, he decided he would go ahead and return the Gatorade and keep the extra money. He enjoyed his mozzarella sticks and then he remembered that the cashier gave him $2.60 back. He thought about it and added up his money and noticed that the cashier gave him back an extra penny. He tried giving it back to the cashier but he was told he didn’t owe him any money back. After J-Fresh returned, I explained how the whole take-a-penny, leave-a-penny thing worked and I think he was okay with it.

On the ride home he was telling me how he had Gatorade at home and that he didn’t need to buy one out. I told him that he made a rational and responsible decision and really put thought into his purchases. I was proud of him because he wasn’t spending money freely like he did with the movies and that shows me that he recognized what he was doing. He is a very smart kid and that makes me happy. He still is terrible at bowling…