One of America's Greatest Pastimes... Bowling

Last night I ventured to a bowling alley here in Columbus that I had never been to before (mind you I only go bowling MAYBE twice a year tops).  So, I'm driving to meet some friends and I'm winding through the streets of a neighborhood and out of nowhere pops up this alley.  Leave up to Americans to build a bowling alley into their neighborhood.

Anyway, it was the first time that I've gone bowling since the summertime and stating that I was a bit rusty in an understatement.  My first game I bowled a 3.  Yes, that's not a typo.  A 3.  I am a very competitive person and we had purchased 4 games, so you can imagine my spirit was broken.  Someone suggested that maybe I was using too heavy of a ball - and they were right, my next two games, I began to knock down pins.  Even get strikes.  My competitive nature was restored.

The bowling alley itself had a ton of interesting characters - families, long time friends, and even babies.  Yes, babies.  I too was surprised to see that families would be out after 11PM with an infant in arms... but we witnessed more than one family who found this to be the norm.  Moral of the story, I found that for those die hard bowlers, nothing gets in the way of their favorite pastime.  And I respect that.

High School Reunions

The holiday season is coming to a close after the ball drops marking the beginning of 2011.  Although the season is coming to an end, I've been happy to say that it's been quite an eventful holiday season.  I have been home in Grand Rapids for about the past two weeks, and I do admit that I'm a bit bored - I've never been one to vacation well when there isn't much on the agenda.  I mean, I am well rested... but I only needed one week to feel this good.  I digress.

Grand Rapids is one of the largest cities in the state of Michigan with a population of over 500,000 and our metro area reaches over 1 million.  In this city, I went to one of two Catholic high schools and the population of the school was less than 1,000.

With these statistics, it would seem near impossible to consistently run into my fellow classmates - but it never fails when we are home for the holidays.  It is crazy to me to think that almost 6 years have passed since I traveled the hallways of my high school, but running into my fellow classmates makes it feel as though time has not passed.

Some of my classmates apparently wanted to have an 'official' 5 year reunion.  High school reunions are fascinating to me with the idea of catching up with people from your past to touch base and catch up on the last few years.  The reunion was interesting - I guess I was thinking it would be awkward to sit and talk about our accomplishments since we left the halls of Catholic Central, but it wasn't.  It was really good to see people, and it was quite entertaining at times to see the best come out of people (and at one point, maybe the worst).  Although it seemed a bit silly to talk about ourselves 5 1/2 years later, I will only be more impressed at our 10 year when people are done with graduate/professional school, or have partners/spouses, and maybe even families.  Crazy. Ah, the joys of growing up.

Oh My God... I Love Surprises!

Have you ever had a secret?  Have you ever had to keep that secret from your best friend for months?  I have.  It was torture. 

One of my best friends lives in Chicago and I haven't seen her since our undergrad's homecoming in early October.  We were trying to figure out when we would see each other next - and I knew it was sooner than later.  

Why?  A surprise birthday party.

I think surprise birthday parties are a staple in American Culture.  What's better than the anticipation of thinking about their reaction, sneakily planning the event, and then the actual surprise itself?  If you really want to understand what I'm talking about, check out this SNL skit:  Surprise Party.

Personally, I've had one experience of being the recipient of a surprise party - I think it's when I turned 12 and my elementary school friends put it together.  My favorite gift of the evening: Pretty Woman. It was legit.

My best friend's party was a twenty-something celebration and was a bit more sophisticated, but the outcome was the same.  She was super surprised and we may or may not have made her cry.  So although it was hard to be the secret keeper - it was well worth seeing her face.  Cause that's the best part.

Ugly Sweaters and White Elephant Gifts

The Holiday Season has arrived full force.  Americans are excited to get to play holiday music whenever they please, have an excuse for spending insane amount of money at various shopping centers for loved ones, and have started to put in those holiday movies that make us laugh or cry.

One particular holiday tradition I'm a fan of: the ugly sweater.  That's right, find the oldest and craziest Holiday Garb from back in the day, put it on, and wear it with pride.  Every year back home, friends from high school dress up in this festive attire and head to a little hole in the wall establishment in my home town of Grand Rapids.  Last year, I wore a festive maroon sweater my sister made back in the early 90s with an ironed on Santa image.  Can't get much better than that, can it? 

So, I wanted to follow tradition and host an ugly sweater holiday party for my staff to celebrate the end of the quarter.  And let me tell you, some of them found some of the greatest sweaters of all time.  I was so proud.

To make the night that much more eventful, we did a white elephant gift exchange.  For those of you unfamiliar with this tradition, one brings a "gift" of something they do not want anymore and passes it off to someone else.  By the end, most are happy with receiving someone's trash and making it their treasure.  For those not satisfied with a gift, there are options to steal throughout the gift exchange.  Personally, I was quite please with my gift, as I received an official Hannah Montana pen. Now, that's American.

Snow Angles and Tobogganing

This morning, I awoke to the first snow fall of the season - not much other than a small blanket covering the grass and leaves.  So, as we move into the winter season, I thought it'd be appropriate to note some (but not limited to) of the very American past times in the snow.

• Making snow angles - what's better than getting snow all over you?

• Snow ball fights - somehow as a child I was the one who always got one to the face. Whomp Whomp. 

• Driving very slowly - especially in the Midwest, people believe they are going to crash, so they chose to drive 10 miles per hour on any road

• Sledding/Tobogganing - there's nothing better than racing down a hill in a sled full of people.  It's like riding a roller coaster in the winter - add some jumps and its a popular attraction

• Snowmobiling - doesn't get more American than that.

• Catching snow flakes on tongue - when I was 5 this was one of my favorite ways to pass time... and actually is still one of mine today

• Build a snowman - or some sort of snow structure.  Below is a picture of a snow script Ohio that some students at OSU did last winter - can't beat it 

• My friend David sent this to me and I thought it was a good addition to the list: EATING SNOW!  I know this was a fun pastime on the playground as kindergartners.  Maybe it goes beyond the age of 5 too?