Beginning Bowling (ESS 131)

Don't let the title fool you. This class is very hard for most all inexperienced bowlers. I don't know whether it was my approach practice without a ball, or the fact that the teacher gave me Men's size 10 bowling shoes (I guess he took one look at my feet and thought they were large enough to upgrade me to the Men's department) but I genuinely stink at bowling. Day 4, he finally let us use balls with our approach so the embarrassment of bowling "ghost style" was out of the way. However, the lingering evidence of a bad bowler hung in the air with gutter after gutter after 2-pins knocked down after gutter ball! (Mind you, these were all my shots. My team is actually decent!) So, the teacher has all these "practice drills" on the side that are meant to help people who can't bowl good (me). Example: stand against the wall and swing your bowling arm back and forth along the wall so you get used to the plane you are to swing on. I won't tell you how dorky this looks...or how dorky one feels! The best part of this class is that he'll have us all sit down here and there and proceed to give us tips and pointers on how to become better bowlers. Right behind the alley (which is in one of the school buildings) is the new, and still being improved, bookstore. For some reason, they like to hammer, saw, drill, and everything in between during that hour. I swear it's like a funny cartoon where important information is being relayed, but no one can hear because the semi-truck is passing by or the helicopter flies overhead! I was cracking up because here, this teacher who already has a soft voice, is talking away and all I can hear are the drills and hammering behind me. I see his lips moving, but I don't catch a single word (except I could read his lips say turkey, and the kid next to me had to explain.) I'm going to blame my sorry skills on the premise that I can't hear the advice on fundamentals. I guess he'll just have to keep sending me to the wall for a while!

Frugal Wars Part II

In my Money Management class we learn ways we can save money and spend money the smart ways. It surprises me that I was never really that frugal to begin with. For example, our teacher asked the class if there is such a thing as being too frugal. I thought perhaps, and maybe even that I had already reached that point; but, to my newfound knowledge, I am so far from being frugal that I hesitate to even classify myself as a tight-wad! She informed us that she knew a newly wed couple who received many nice gifts from family and friends at their wedding reception. They both had a year of school to finish, so they didn't want to spend the money on renting a Uhaul or truck, so they returned all the gifts and got money in return. When they got to Rexburg, they bought just what they thought they needed in appliances at Deseret Industries with the plan that when they moved, they would just give all they purchased back to Goodwill. Personally, at first I thought no big deal...until you actually go to a Goodwill. Why anyone would sell back their brand new 6-speed blender for a 1970's malt-maker (seriously just a stick that vibrates into a tin cup) is beyond my understanding. That's not even the best one. She also had some friend who her and her husband had some 6 or 7 odd number of children. To save on money, everytime one of the children had to use the bathroom, the dad handed them 4 squares of toilet paper and said, "Good luck!" My goodness! I just laughed really hard because I didn't know if the teacher was kidding or not. She just slowly gave a slight smile with a sigh and nodded her head with her eyes closed.