Prom

Sometimes before i go to formal dances, my mom holds me to my promise of mowing the lawn.

and oh yeah, sometimes i spray paint my shoes gold while my date is being grilled by Derek in the parlor...

taking posed pictures is my least favorite thing in the world. that and wet socks.

add to that the fact that Derek, Jonathan and Jenae were all just standing with big ol grins on thier faces, soaking up the awkwardness while mom tried to tell me how to stand.

this is how the first picture came out:

And then Jenae made some joke about the neighbors watching from their windows. so Derek starts running around the yard, yelling for the neighbors to come outside and gawk.

naturally.

I was freaking out.

we finally got a smiling picture so i ran away from my mom and the camera and got in Jay's truck. and we pulled away to my family all laughing their behinds off on the front porch...

on the bright side, Jay pretended to be cool with me taking my fancy fanny pack, charlie, to prom.

He's cool.

that's wassup, dawg.

When we got to Brandon's, where we took group pictures (which was just uhmm, down el street ha.) we all exchanged the obligatory hellos and 'you look great's. We all uncomfortably ate delicious cookies in the kitchen while we waited for the stragglers to show up.

right before we went outside to take pictures, i went into Brandon's room to fix my hair. and Travis and Jason were in there too, and we had a nice little, "this is real, we are seniors and this is prom" moment.

we took some pictures outside that were all awkward and i felt like i was forcing my smile sooo i won't put them up here. plus, i'm sure a bunch of far away group shots is pointless for this blog.

I made Brandon take a picture with me.

His mom snapped all these by the way, she's great.

I seriously love this kid.

Luke and Leia all day.

 

so, in like March, i didn't even know if i was going to prom, but we were in fresno, and on a whim i asked if we could stop by my favorite vintage thrift store.

so we did.

and i was looking for a giant, purple princess dress with a bunch of fluffy tuele and maybe some lace hem and crazy pleating and i don't even know. i just wanted to look like a dang Disney princess!

and then a sequinn on a rack in the corner caught my eye. I pulled out the dress and squealed. and then i walked away because i didn't want to look at the size. I was sure that it was going to be like a dang 2 and i was not about to lose 700 pounds and cut off my hips just to fit a dress for prom. 

But i checked. and it was my size. so i tried it on. and it fit like a dang glove. 

plus, it was $20. so uhmm obvi, we got it.

and i literally giggled the entire drive home.

I didn't even have a date until two weeks before the dance, but heck was i ready with my dang dress!

And you know what? I felt like a mermaid. 

So i WAS a Disney Princess!

And i love this picture of the four of us really smiling :)

We hopped in our cars and drove to travis' where the limo picked us up. -_-

I hate limos.

just puttin' it out there.

they're super awkward. especially when there like 8 too many people and you're squished on the ground between giant Arron Van horn and the door. and i hate hip hop music. and i hate rap.

most of it.

sometimes, it's fun, or there's like a cool piano part. and sometimes the lyrics make me laugh because they're witty or there's a cool rhyme. but 90% of music these days is literally filth.

disgusting, degrading, aggravating filth.

and most of it sounds angry.

and most of it is extremely immoral.

anyway, moving on from my rap rant...

the drive to Travis' was uhmmm? super fun. hahaha. we laughed. and i made fun of Jay for being short. and i enjoyed riding in a truck, because i rarely do that.

And he called me cinna because i wore gold eyeliner (props to home slice Jenae for finding some for me in the ghetto girl section of make up at walmart. you rock.)

Unfortunately, I left my camera in Jay's truck....so....my documenting process was thwarted. boo.

We went to Dinner at a Japanese place...

It was wild.

they cooked the dinner right there in front of us! THE CHEF MADE A FIRE VOLCANO OUT OF STACKED ONION RINGS. I died. several times.

and i had my first experience with tartar sauce. 

gross.

and my first shrimp.

gross gross.

and my first sushi.

gross. gross. GA-ROSS.

but the rice was good! and i got to use chopsticks! and there were carrots!

But...

I think i'll stick with hamburgers and Pizza...

when we finally got to prom, we walked in looking fabulous and while the security guard searched through all the other bags and gave full pat downs to evvvveryone else, she barely even glanced at me and my fanny pack as I waltzed past her. haha.

we got in line for pictures and decided that there was no way in heck we were going to do the traditional prom pose. are you kidding me? those pictures are like $50, i was not about to stand there posed.
I wanted to Bernie, he refused so we settled for this:

I had a dang BLAST at prom!

and i got to do the robot with my favorite teacher, Mrs.Watterson!

she definitely gave my class a lecture the following Monday for the dancing she unfortunately witnessed.

**WARNING! rant ahead!**

It's frustrating to me that only one genre is played at school dances: sex.

literally.

all the songs have the same beat, and they're all just grinding songs. no body cares that the lyrics are obscene, so long as the beat is 'down'. stupid! they don't even play songs that you can DANCE to, they just play songs that you can make babies to. all the grown ups complain about the suggestive (to say the least) dancing at prom. uhmm. do something about it.

play music about sex? students dance like they're doing the deed.

play music about fun? students have fun.

it's not that difficult.

play songs with a dance beat. play songs with lyrics that are happy, and not just : get in bed with me.

turn a few more lights on so it's not so dark.

i promise, most of the dancing that grown ups worry about would NOT be happening if it wasn't almost pitch black on the dance floor. and no, strobe lights are not the same thing. i'm talking actual, florescent, on the ceiling, with a dang rectangle glass/plastic thing covering them, LIGHTS. the kind that illuminate more than a foot in circumference.

THIS is dancing:

THIS is not:

this was taken at our winter formal, but i whited out everyone's faces so y'all cna't get mad at me!

I have been to 3 school dances. three. and all of them were exactly the same dancing wise.

I have been to a church dance once a month for the past six years. plus EFY and other occasions were dancing was involved. never once have i felt uncomfortable, not once have i felt like someone was going to get pregnant, and i have never gone to a church dance and not had fun.

people just need to get it through their heads that dancing doesn't have to be dirty. and you can have fun without being under the influence. and you can look good without showing off your body. and you can be attractive without all the cloth on your entire dress adding up to the square footage of a dish towel.

*gets off soap box*

when it comes to school functions, and anything really, you get out what you put in. so i just partied hard with my friends and didn't worry about impressing anyone because I just wanted to be comfortable. so even when i looked ridiculous, i kept going back to the dance floor, trying to dance. i was trying to be zane veator all night. aka? I flung my arms everywhere while my feet go the opposite direction. When done right, you attract friends are seen as a groove genius. like Zane. but when I do it, it means dancing by myself in a corner. ha. but that's perfectly okay with me! Because I had hecka fun bernie-ing and doing the EFY dance and the cotton eyed Joe while everyone else got nasty. and flipping out when the allotted ONE  not hip-hop nasty song came on. and interpretive dancing to "no air" by Rihanna. by my self and everyone else stared at me while they el Mcnastied with their dates. aaand i may have hard core whipped my hair when dang willow smith came on.

 It was great.

now i feel bad because i feel like i'm sending the wrong message.

I had SUPER fun at prom!! 

 and despite the seafood and the dirty dancing (ten points for Patrick Swayze reference...) I'm really glad i went! I loved seeing everyone all dressed up and happy, and I love being with my friends. I love taking pictures and eating yummy rice. I love laughing, which i did a lot of.
My best friend and i had semi matching sparkly dresses, I had gold shoes and i took pictures of my dance group outside if Brandon's house. which is pretty much the ultimate sign of cool here... I love how superficial we all are here :)

Thanks Jorge, for being the Junior class president and throwing a sweet, sweet dance.

thanks, group for being crazy and making me laugh all night.

thanks Marissa for being my best friend even though your dancing skills are miles above mine.

thanks watterson for being a legit chaperon and having a giant flashlight and a whistle.

Thank You Jay for taking me!! He was a perfect Gentleman all night.

Prom was awesome.

I had a total blast and i would definitely recommend it.

my only suggestion? don't make babies on the dance floor.

I hope your Saturday is going great!

-Mel