25 Firsts

another shameless rip off from another blog. . . there's 25 of them but i got hung up on number one. stay tuned for the rest.

1. Who was your first prom date?
Todd King. omygracious it was such a disaster. i had just moved to milwaukee from boston, easter before my junior year. awful in itself. (the guy in boston i had been "talking to" for weeks elected to take my best friend to prom since i was moving away anyway and was a lousy investment. i ended up moving a week early to get outta dodge before that prom took place. it ended up being ugly foreshadowing)

with a week to relax before school resumed (what is relaxing about freaking out for an entire week thinking about starting a new school?), i met the guy down the street. he was tall and cute, and awkwardly asked me to the prom. . . he had a date but she bailed, he already had the tux, blah blah blah, you're new in town and i could take you and blah blah blah. i walked away from the encounter feeling pretty good. i just got a date and i hadn't even been in town for 72 hours. score!

that is until i went to school. apparently word can spread like wildfire through a school even without facebook. new girl in town was noteworthy enough, but new girl makes a date with the dateless wonder.

gulp. did i just commit social suicide?

egads.

fortunately most people gave me a pass because i just didn't know. . . todd was nice, but not wildly known for his engaging social skills {ie: none}. it had all the makings for a disaster. and it didn't disappoint.

prom came about four weeks later. about enough time for me to begin to have a "relationship" with a senior guy who had taken a liking to me. we kept things about as DL as we could to make it as un-awkward as possible. but with todd, un-awkward was next to impossible.

i got my dress at gunny sax, the uber cool prom dress name in its time. i fixed my hair, did the make up thing, and basically had my mom to help. no friends came over to get ready or whatever. . . life was slow to start in a new school. todd arrived. slightly soggy from dodging the torrents of rain. took the obligatory photos, mom cried. etc.

did i mention it was raining? spring monsoon. date with a basketball injury that now masquerades as a barometer. rain = pain. so no dancing.

oh, great. this night may be the longest of my life.

truer words never said (under my breath).

the tables next to the dance floor were nice. the chairs comfortable. the company. . . insipid and statuesque.

while most of the kids left the prom and headed to the lakefront to hang out until dawn and then went to breakfast as someone's home, i was home by 12:30.

i don't even think we shook hands.

i don't know what ever became of mr. king. . . he's probably an investment banker, wildly successful. . . who knows. . . i'm not who i was in high school (thank goodness!!) and he's probably much changed, too. 

have you got an awkward prom date in your past?