Posts Tagged ‘prom’

Okay, y’all.

So I thought last year’s prom was weird? I had no idea.

I was told (again) only 2 days before Prom that it was coming up. And (again) I went into “OMG, are you KIDDING me with this last minute stuff?!” mode, and (again) she looked at me like I was nuts.

Me: Whaddya mean it’s no big deal?
Her:Just what I said. God mom, chill.
Me:Where are we gonna get everything in a day and a half?! A dress? Shoes? Alison, this is ridiculous! (deep breath) Okay, okay.
Her:
Me: Alright, at least tell me what the theme is?
Her: Crawfish boil.
Me, post long-pause: Your prom theme is “crawfish boil?”
Her: No. Prom IS a crawfish boil. And it’s casual dress.

So here’s Alison’s classy classy prom photo- she wouldn’t stand still, but it’s what I got.

She wore shorts.

My mother is laughing her ass off at me in heaven, you know- I skipped prom altogether as being too bourgeois or whatever. So karma again bites me in the ass.

Ah well. It’s the only thing she’s done in years that’s saved me money.

I’m always amazed at the ways that growing up in the 80s continues to affect me.

I had a very different idea of what “prom” was, even though I blew my own off. Growing up in the era of John Hughes movies it always seemed like PROM, not prom.

Apparently, at McGehee, it’s clearly more of the latter. After much running around, Alison chose a not-exactly-prom-dressy prom dress, and flats. Flats! It’s hard for me to wrap my head around, since it wasn’t so long ago that the higher the heels, the more she adored the shoes. She’s a quick learner.

(Kindly please ignore the office mess around her…click for bigger version)

But we did have some John Hughes-style drama when her date canceled around 11am. She was upset, but not crazed- apparently, again, prom. It seems that at this girl’s school, the boys are more of an afterthought.

The whole prom seemed like an afterthought- they forgot about the Queen’s tiara and bought a $5 Hello Kitty toy crown…but that one Alison couldn’t stand for, especially since she’s friends with the (correctly) presumed Queen. A proper tiara and scepter set was obtained from our inventory, and eventually much oohed and ahhed over.

But in the end, prom was supposed to run until 10:30… by 10 everyone had gone and they were just cleaning up…and there wasn’t much to clean up. It was all pretty low key- I saw no limos, no over-the-top dresses, nothing to say this was a big deal at all.

I haven’t decided if I think this is a good thing or not. Taken on its own, it probably is, but I can’t help but think that overall, “Pretty in Pink” was a better message than “Gossip Girl.”

It turns out that I’m not going to be spending the whole weekend in the Quarter. I took some time to go a little more carefully through the PyrateCon site, and discovered that, unlike me, many people take this quite seriously.

There are lectures and symposia all day long while the pillaging and misbehaving is responsibly restricted to certain times and places.

I would still be willing to pay the price to just go to the rum-intensive bits, but Alison announced quite casually that Prom is Saturday.

THIS Saturday. When I went purple and was desperately wishing I had a cutlass of my own, she didn’t seem to know what my problem was. After all, there are a few days to get ready, and it’s not like it’s Saturday MORNING. Jeez, ma-you always overreact.

So the big parade starts at 6pm. The prom starts at 7. True, it’s only her junior prom and not the main event of her high school career, but… I think I still have to do the mom-thing.

Probably.