Bowling With Girl Scouts

Actually, more along the lines of Sitting and Reading, and Trying Not to Wince When They Skip up to the Line and then Slam the Ball Down And Watch it Bounce.

My daughter's troop participated in a Service Event, which is Girl Scout Speak for multiple troops coming to one place at the same time to do the same thing. I'm not sure how many were there, though it looked to be about forty girls in all. Mostly, I sat and read the book I'd just picked up from the libe -- The Librarian, appropriately enough, though its actually a political novel (I like political novels; I've liked them since Advise and Consent, even though I was pretty sure that politicians didn't actually speak as lucidly as Drury made them speak, or have such a clear outlook for what they wanted to achieve. Come to think of it, they don't now, either. Well, the Democrats don't, anyway) -- looking up every so often when they would cheer because one of them had actually gotten the ball all the way down the lane without hitting one of the bumpers.

Ten lanes away, some serious bowlers were going at it (you can tell them, because they wear gloves and, if they could, I think they'd have laser rangefinders and methods of plotting the slope and gradient of the alley), but we (the whole roiling GS mass) were having more fun. One girl, from another troop, was just a delight to watch, because she was so serious when she actually bowled, but when she was not, she'd be dancing, singing, and mugging with an incredibly expressive face. Didn't hurt that she reminded me of a woman I know who lives in LA, not that I knew her as a child, or for that matter have even met her more than once -- I still liked this kid just a little more because of the resemblance.

It was fun.