officially my longest blogpost. EVER.
Las Vegas
I counted the days and I was so excited to go on this trip. What I was even more excited about was to share this whole experience with my mom. I am so happy she could come with me to see and try out the life on the road with me. This trip was not as bad as it normally is, I had a lot of time off bowling but many things to do outside of the lanes. Meetings, practice sessions, ball drilling, photoshoot, jetlag. I got to do so many fun things this trip, I wish every trip was like that!
We arrived Wednesday late evening, got all our luggage and took a taxi to the hotel, South Point. We checked in, I dropped my bags off at the rooms and took a quick shower to head downstairs to meet up with some friends that I had not seen since a year back and they were gonna leave the morning after. Mom went straight to bed, tired after the long flight. I didn't stay up very late.
Thursday we went downstairs to watch some bowling. I signed up for the PBA regional tournament that was played Friday but the practice session was Thursday. After the practice session I drilled a few balls. The rest of the day was spent around the hotel and bowling center to try to figure everything out for the TV show. I got my schedule for Friday and also Sunday when we were gonna bowl the show. Other than that Thursday was not that exciting.
Friday though. Breakfast. Then off to the new arena, they had the opening ceremony for this place on Thursday so we were gonna be one of the first people to bowl there! At the arena we did a commercial photoshoot for the show. Can't wait to see the result, the photos were looking very nice on set. When the photoshoot was done I had to wait around for a little while do to an interview with Randy and Mike J for the show. Just a short interview to update them on what has happened since last time, 2011. :)
I was done in the arena just after noon, so I went straight to the other bowling center (so yes, they have two centers in this hotel with 64lanes in each I believe) to get ready for my squad in the PBA regionals event. My first one and I bowled very well. Ended up about +80 or +90 for 8games and I cashed! This was a good start to my trip. Going straight to dinner after the tournament and then back to the arena for a practice session on the TV pair. First time bowling on blue oil.
Ended the Friday night with going out with a few friends to see Tiesto play at one of the big clubs in Vegas. The Hakkasan at MGM Grand. Had a blast and really enjoyed my evening off.
Saturday was my day off were I could really relax and prepare myself for Sunday. We drilled a few more balls. I watched Jesper Svensson win his first PBA regional title and I watched Martin bowl his first TV show. So cool!
And then we have THE day.
Sunday. Woke up, got ready and went downstairs to eat a big breakfast buffet. I was gonna bowl my show in the early afternoon so I had to fill my tummy up.
We had the opportunity to practice in the other end of the bowl for almost 2h before the show, which was nice and comfy and gave me a good chance to get loose.
They called us over about 30mins later than scheduled, they were running a bit late but that didn't get to me at all.
We got a few mins of practice before it was time to bowl. During practice they were annoucing our names and I heard: Sandra Johnson!
He corrected himself and got it right: Sandra Andersson and Liz Johnson!
You may or may not know that we were not gonna bowl the normal scoring system, that we were gonna test out the new scoring system that is supposed to help us become an Olympic sport or at least one step closer.
For those of you that didn't know about it I'm gonna try and explain how it is supposed to be bowled: you bowl for one point in each frame. If bowler A throws a strike while bowler B leave a 9 count - bowler A wins that frame, no spare shot needed and the scores are 1-0. If both bowlers throws a strike then the frame is tied and no points. If both bowlers leave a 9 count then spare shots are required. One game is 12frames but will end when one bowler has shot out the other.
Of its tied after 12frames a frame by frame/shot by shot shootout will take place.
SPOILER ALERT
I wanna start with saying I'm very happy with how I bowled and how I was able to control all my feelings on the show. I felt so much more in control now than last time and that was my main goal. To come back and to have learnt and grown from my past experiences. I can't really remember everything but as far as I know right now there is only one shot out of the 13 frames we bowled that I am unhappy with and that is the shot where I lost focus on staying in the moment and wanted a little too much so I grabbed it too early and missed the head pin to the right. That's the only one out of 13shots that I can remember being unhappy with. Unfortunately this was not enough. I'm gonna save all discussions about the new scoring system until all of you have seen the show cause I would really love to hear what you all think about it and I promise to give you my thoughts as well.
The show is aired January 25th but for those of you that wants to read someone else's opinions already then go to the websites below to read some more about it. One of them is Jeff Richgels blog and his thoughts and the other one is an interview I did with the Swedish Bowling Federation for their website (only in swedish)
Please share your thoughts if you have any after reading these two posts.
http://www.11thframe.com/news/article/7002
http://www.swebowl.se/Nyheter/NyheterSwebowl/Sandrautslageni13erutan/
I could not have done it better. I don't have any regrets at all. I felt confident, I enjoyed it and I bowled my heart out. The rest is yet to come.
We were flying out Tuesday and Monday was spent at the premium outlets for some mandatory shopping. :)
Still jetlagged, one and a half week later. No fun.
I wanna end this very long blog post with thanking all of you who supports me and believes in me, my readers, my friends, my family. All of you who reached out to wish me good luck and to know the scores, all of you who said so many nice things to me before and after the show. A big thanks to Cecil and Vise Inserts for helping me out with getting all my grips and thumbs ready for the show. A big thanks to Storm and Roto grip for supplying me with the best balls on the market. Even bigger THANKS to Del, Jim and Schlemer for everything before, during and after the show.
I am truly blessed to be surrounded by such amazing people that always takes good care of me.
Much love
-S
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