90% of getting ready for prom is for the pictures. Once you actually get to the prom, it turns out that its a dark, sweaty room where everyone looks less good within 15 minutes of dancing.
I met my date, a close friend, at his house two hours before the prom start time. We live in a small town, on the same street, in a semi-urban setting. My house doesn't have a yard. His does, so we decided to do our first round of pictures there. My parents, my grandparents, and his mom were there. We did all of the standard prom poses with appropriate teenage awkwardness. We also took some great photos near an open trash can (which are still on his camera), which will probably turn out to be my favorite from the evening, due to their antiestablishment nature. You can save all of your jokes about ginger prom dates, we have heard them all. No, we did not go tanning before prom.
After an hour of picture taking at his house we headed to meet a large group of our friends at Fonthill, a whimsical poured-in-place concrete castle designed by local celebrity Henry Chapman Mercer. There, we had hors d'oeuvres, schmoozed, and complimented each other on how not ugly we all looked. Our parents, collectively, took 800 to 100,000 photos.
Me and Sir Date
Dominique's Boyfriend, Dominique, Me, Sir Mister Date Esq. PhD
A Mass Quantity of My Friends, Airborne
Erinn and her date drove me and my date to prom in her sleek 2000 Jetta. Prom was at a surprisingly nice country club. When we arrived, everyone was herded up a grand staircase to walk past security so that drunk kids could be weeded out and their lives could be subsequently ruined. Luckily, nobody at the prom got busted. This walk was a great opportunity to outfit snark. My date, though not a huge fan of fashion, is a huge fan of film and the Oscars, and he used this opportunity to do some red-carpet style fashion critique. Lots of girls wore looks straight out of Seventeen Prom. Tans were orange, makeup was overdone, dresses were skimpy, and boobs were overly prominent. The majority of people looked great though.
We were required to spend the first hour of prom eating. The menu included a salad, which I didn't touch, sourdough bread, and stuffed shells or lemon chicken. Nobody seemed excited to eat this food. Instead, there was a lot of polite, adult socializing, which was maybe the strangest part of the whole night. After, we were all let into the ballroom and we danced. The DJ wasn't very good, and played mostly oldies. Nothing made me feel closer to my peers than grinding to ABC by the Jackson 5. My date, who doesn't usually dance, danced with me the entire time, and even liked it. The room was a sauna of adolescent awkwardness, and we were very sweaty by the end of the evening. My hair eventually retreated to its natural fur-like texture and triangular shape. I didn't really care though, because I was having a great time.
Afterward, we headed to a party at Dominique's boyfriend's house, where we swam, talked, and stayed up until 5 am. In the morning, we had pancakes. As far as I know, most other social groups did similar things. I am not aware of anyone who died or got arrested. Maybe someone got pregnant, but we won't know for a few weeks. I'll let you know!
When I got home the next morning I was really excited to shower. Looking nice is fun, but after two days of makeup, sweating, and swimming I felt absolutely disgusting. I got home and showered. I pulled off my fake eyelashes, and some of my real eyelashes too. I put on sweatpants. It felt great to feel ugly.
In short, prom was awesome, but one prom per lifetime is probably enough for me. If you are younger than me and you are reading this, I definitely recommend that you go to your prom, but just keep it in perspective.
This post is part 2 of a 2 part post on prom. Go here for part 1.
