(Why is Jesus in the subject field?  To get by my uncle's spam filter.)

IN WHICH We Evacuate the FU Center, Switch The Seating Arrangements, Search Madly For Our Scheduled Destination, And Begin To Bowl The Night Away In A Wild And Insane Soda-Fueled Thrillfest.

When we got out of the seats and back into the foyer, we had to try to find both the vehicles and get them together again.  As it was difficult enough for both drivers to remember where they had parked their own cars, and nearly impossible for them to know where to go amidst the traffic to find each other, I was left with almost all of the kids again, waiting in the lobby.  I soon found out that "Can I dribble your basketball?" really means "Can I have your basketball and whine really loud when you try to take it back and let someone else dribble it, only to have the same scenario repeated until you take the basketball back for good and we amuse ourselves by jumping into walls?"  The girl who owned the balloon hat asked for it back - I had forgotten I was wearing it, but it did help explain the extra room people seemed to give us.

We moved one of the troublemaking youths into Jason's car, which Josh tells me was the epitome of silence and good behavior on the trip to the game.  The year before, my car was full of well-behaved teenagers who were capable of intelligent discussions of convenience stores and land alligators, while he had the ones who made racist comments and argued all night long.  I suppose it was only fair that he got the good trip this time.

Mike handed me the directions to the bowling alley, somewhere in the middle of New Jersey, and started towards the bridge to Jersey.  The switch had helped matters somewhat in the car, but slowly the influence of the meaner kids started to corrupt the new guy.  The girl with the hat kept bouncing between her seat and the space between Mike and I, to escape the constant touching of her hair, teasing, and arguing.

"They keep saying that I have lice!," she whimpered.

"Stop saying she has lice!," I ordered.

"Why would you make fun of someone for having lice?  It isn't very nice," Mike added.

The way he said it gave me a chill.  Did I just share a balloon hat with a little girl with a head full of lice?

I traded seats with her, to ensure that no more illegal touching went on in the back seat.  Meanwhile, Mike and I couldn't find the exit that the directions said would come up on the interstate, even after turning around twice.  The kids in the back kept yelling "We're lost!," like it was some sort of grand adventure, and when I tried to explain to them that we weren't lost unless we didn't know where we were -- and we knew exactly where we were on the map -- they just giggled and repeated themselves.  "WE'RE NOT LOST!!!!," Mike and I kept saying, to growing choruses of giggles.

We finally stopped in a small town off the interstate to show Jason the map and explain the situation.  Mike and Jay figured out some sort of way back, based mainly on Mike's knowledge of the state, and our assumption that the directions had been unclear and misleading as to where to find the exit.  Rather than take another way to the city that we had found on the map, we tried to just retrace our path on the interstate.  And it worked.

As soon as we got to the right town, all the kids informed us that they had been here many times before, and they knew exactly where we were going.  We pulled into the bowling alley about 20 minutes behind schedule, and quickly made it to our appointed lanes.  Yet no one was bowling!  I set up the lane computer with everyone's names, and just as I finished, the announcement was made: "All right, everybody!  It's time to turn on the lanes!"

Had they waited for us?  Or did our lateness just give us the good fortune to avoid twenty minutes of sitting and waiting and sitting and waiting?  Either way, the bowling excitement was now beginning.

TO BE CONTINUED

Part Eleven

NHS Speech

"My View" Editorial

The October Surprise
|  Round 1 |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |
|   6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |
|  11  |  12  |  Final Bell  |

Journey to Jersey II
|  Intro  |  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |
|   6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  |
|  12  |  13  |  14  |  15  |

Journey to Jersey I
|  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |   6  |  7  |  8  |
|  9  |  10  |  11  |  12  |  13  |  14  |
|  15  |  16  |  17  |  18  |  19  |  20  |

An Epic Saga
|  Act  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |
|   6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  |
|  12  |  13  |  14  |  15  |  16  |

Christian Rock Email

Freshman Room Draw
|  Part One  |  Two  |
|  Three  |  Four  |  Five  |