Off to the Prom

For many, prom night is a once in a lifetime experience. For me, it's an annual occurrence. Yes, earlier today I was actually considering which shoes would look best with my selected prom outfit. No prom dress this year. I've decided to go with the dressy pants and top look. And my shoe selection dilemma focuses more on what will be comfortable for standing at the door for four hours rather than which pair best compliments the outfit.

As prom season approached, I noticed several bloggers were reliving their own prom experiences and posting pictures. I am not so brave. I attended two proms when I was in high school. The first was at the high school that was my school's cross-town rival. I went at the behest of my date's mother who called my mother and asked her if I would go. Can you imagine just how popular this guy was? To top that experience off, we entered the country club for dinner just as a group of the most popular girls from my high school were being seated with their equally popular dates. Beautiful. For that event, I wore the 80s classic off the shoulder, tea length light blue taffeta concoction. For my own senior prom, things went a bit better, though I did attend with my newly-ex boyfriend. We'd dated most of my senior year, but he broke up with me a few weeks before the dance. Having been planning to dump him as soon as was convenient prior to my leaving for college, I was not distraught about the breakup and had the presence of mind to inform him at the time that I hoped he didn't think this was getting him out of taking me to the prom, it being far to late for me to acquire another date. We went with a group and had a good time. I honestly have fairly vague memories of the whole thing other than that year's dress which departed a bit from the standard by not being taffeta. This time, it was a tea length royal blue lace dress with a sweetheart strapless neckline which my mother was not a fan of but let me buy anyway. There's a picture in my senior yearbook from that night that is cropped in a way that makes me look like I'm not wearing anything. Nice.

Girls today seem more confident about their fashion choices than we were. Tonight we'll see all different styles and lengths. Fortunately, the "genie" two-piece look seems to have gone out of style. Hemlines are getting shorter, though, so soon we'll have to worry about that. I enjoy working at prom each year because with it being a "seniors only" event, it's smaller than our other formal school event, the homecoming dance. We also rarely have any inappropriate behavior at prom. It's a nice evening, watching the kids who are about to leave us have a really good time. It's bittersweet in many ways to see those students who I've known since they entered All-American High as insecure sophomores experiencing one of the last "big events" of their high school careers.

Not to be outdone by all the students, I have prepared for prom by getting a lovely pedicure, and one of the other principals and I are going out to dinner before hand, hopefully at a location that will not prove popular for our students. She and I have been fairly successful in our choices the last couple of years, so I'm hoping our luck holds. It's just not as fun for either the students or for us when we end up at the same restaurant. We've learned over the years, though, that anonymity for us in this town is unlikely. Part of the job is making sure we're a role model at all times. Last night, when Adventure Guy and I went out to get some sushi, we chose a restaurant that's not in the district. That did not, however, stop us from being seated by a hostess who's a former student and being greeted by three of my seniors who were at the table behind us. I've even run into students on vacation in Belize and on a cruise that left from San Juan. It's really amazing in some ways how often that happens.

Outside of prom this evening, our weekend is pretty uneventful. Soccer Boy had a game this morning, in which he scored a goal, his first of the season. Swim Chick has gone to a movie with friends, and Adventure Guy is doing the lawn. Everyone is supposed to be engaged in cleaning up the game room and their rooms, but that seems to be happening in stages. Gym Girl is diligently working, and I predict the others will regret not putting in the time earlier when she's finished later today. I figured that since I'm working on getting the mounds and mounds of laundry that have piled up done, I should take a bit of time to update the blog. That's my excuse for not doing something more productive. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!