I know, and that's great. Your hard work is paying off (literally this time) and I'm sure that's only the tip of the iceberg for you. I only wish you success in further tournaments, and, if your buddy ain't around for a "tounge-lashing pep talk", let me know and I'll send you one through email. It's great to watch hard work pay off for anyone.

Congrats :-)

Funny you would mention that...he called me while I was on the freeway stressing about trying to get the tournament. I'm sure Angel can attest to how crazy SoCal traffic can get (especially on a Saturday on the 5 freeway). I was so upset because I was going to take the 405, with the bowling alley being at the intersection of the two.

So here's our conversation (made for TV)...

Buddy: 'If you're going to b**** and moan about traffic and be all wound up before you even get there, just turn around and go home. Go buy your wife a pair of jeans or something with the entry fee. It's not even worth it.'

Me: 'You're right, I can't control it'

Buddy: 'That's my m*****f****** man...now if you get there on time, and you can bowl, then what you got to stress about?

Me: 'Nothing, I guess'

Buddy: 'That's right, not a f****** thing...now get there and bowl your a** off and run my cheddar!! (money for the slang impaired). (laughing)

Me: 'Aight, peace' (laughing)

Hilarious and honest, gotta have friends like that to keep you grounded. So that's what I did. I got there, got my bags out the trunk and went to sign up...realized I had a few minutes to practice and calmly put on my shoes and threw three different balls. They all reacted well, but I figured my Fired Up would create the best reaction over the 6 games.

But it worked again...I instantly forgot about the traffic, how I was stressed to get there and promptly opened with a 268...great stuff.

But if I ever need a little extra boost, I'll have you shoot me an email...thanks for the love.

Good job Show. You owe one to your buddy for the pep talk.

That's funny Show and congrats!

And I know traffic can just be a bear and you don't know when its going to be unreasonably bad either. So its not like you can allow for crashes, fires along the road (this happens a lot in the Sac area) or even debris scrattered all over the place. At any given moment in that area as well as my area and many others, any strange thing like a jumper on the over pass can add 60 minutes to your drive. A truck carrying tomatoes can flip, couch fall out of the back of someone's truck and you are backed up for miles and it could take over an hour and more gasoline then you have in your tank to wait it out. And all this stuff could have happened hours before you hit the road. There's just no way to plan for that.

Erin