2010 - a Year in Review

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season. As 2010 comes to a close, I thought I'd reflect on the past year - the good, the bad and the ugly.

Let's start with the positives..Definitely topping the list would be getting married to my wonderful husband Drew Parkin on September 18, 2010. Although the wedding planning process was a bit stressful at times and was definitely more difficult that I had expected, the day turned out to be absolutely perfect, as we got married on a yacht in Newport Beach Harbor at sunset.

Next would have to be our unforgettable honeymoon throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, where we visited Italy, Greece, Turkey and Egypt. This past year also marked a few milestones, as I was able to visit a few places that were on my "Top 10 List" of places I had never been to, but wanted to see - Rome, the pyramids in Egypt and the Big island of Hawaii, as well as my favorite place in the world - Venice, Italy!

We also ended out the year adding two additions to our family - a black kitty named Gizmo and a Basset Hound/Golden Retriever mix puppy named Shelby. Both of which are keeping us busy!

Positives in the bowling world definitely peaked with the USBC Queens tournament that was held in April of 2010 in El Paso, Texas. The USBC Queens tournament is one of the hardest TV shows to qualify for primarily due to the difficult format. After qualifying, it all comes down to winning the three-game total pins matches in the double-elimination style bracket, and you definitely want to stay in the winners bracket to improve your chances of making the show. I had some very grueling and close matches throughout the event, but definitely my toughest match had to be against Carolyn Dorin-Ballard. It was the deciding match to see who would make the TV show and with both of us being pretty lined up, our scores were high and striking was at a premium! The entire three-game match came down to the 9th and 10th frame to see who would move on. Carolyn threw a nasty split in the 9th and I filled frames in the 9th and 10th to advance to the TV show finals. We'll discuss the actual TV show later...

The next "good" aspect of 2010 was being invited to compete in the LBO Stop #5 Open in Tokyo, Japan in October of 2010. With a rocky start in the tournament, I came on the final day, bowling very well in the semifinals winning 7 out of 8 matches in the round robin match play format, advancing to 2nd place for the TV show finals. On the TV show, I first bowled Japanese star Hiroko Shimizu and won 236 to 220. Then in the championship match I lost to Shannon Pluhowsky, who threw the front 8 strikes to win the title. So I ended up in 2nd place overall in the tournament, earning a nice paycheck in the process.

The bad...that would probably have to do with my struggle at the beginning part of the year with my pulled groin muscle injury which I incurred during the 2009 Women's U.S. Open. Unfortunately that injury takes a long time to heal and the fact that I was forced to then bowl on it for a month straight during the 2009 World Series of Bowling, right after I had injured it, I'm sure didn't help matters. The nagging injury proved to be a little disheartening and gave me a little setback for the start of 2010.

And the ugly...that's an easy one...who could forget the USBC Queens TV show. Needing only a mark to move on to the semifinal match, I went up and threw what I thought to be a perfect shot off my hand, only to be faced with the dreaded pocket 7-10 split to loose to Kelly Kulick. I will say, that if I was given the opportunity to do it all over again, I wouldn't do change a thing. It was just a very unlucky break at a very inopportune time.

So what does 2011 have in store for me?...We'll have to wait and see...