I woke up on Tuesday morning thinking I had forgotten something.

Then it hit me : today was prom.

I quickly became a pack of nerves. I was gonna forget something. My hair was gonna suck. My makeup was gonna smudge. My shoes would break, and no one would like my dress, and the night would be ruined.

All these thoughts passed through my head before 9 AM.

I sort of calmed down enough to get my shit together. I took a shower, had lunch, and then headed to my hair appointment with no idea how I wanted my hair to look.

My outfit had a very retro 40s vibe to it, and I was wearing a cute little hat with feathers swooping off of it. I informed the hairdresser of this and she said she knew exactly what to do.

I came out of there with a very cute, very twisty up-do/french twist kind of deal that required 42 hairpins and a very patient hairdresser.

Then I went straight to my makeup appointment, where more makeup was applied to my face than I thought existed in the world. Seriously. But the girl did a really nice job, and I thought I looked quite gorgeous.

I rushed home to get dressed before my limo came to pick me up. A basic list of my outfit's components.

-1 dress, pink, lacy, sexy, bought at an antique store for 68$.

-1 cute hat, black and pink with long feathers swooping from one side

-1 pair long black gloves

-1 pair cute black strappy sandals

-1 cheap sparkly black feather boa

-1 cute pink and white evening bag

-1 pair cheap pink beady clip-on earrings

-1 cheap matching pink beady bracelet

-1 VERY EXPENSIVE matching pink pearl necklace, my graduation gift

That's about it. My mom took about a bazillion pictures of me, and then the limo arrived and the boy came to ring the bell. He looked rather shocked and amazed (in a good way) when my mom opened the door and he saw me. My mom then proceeded to take a bazillion pictures of me and the boy, near the door, on the driveway, in front of the limo. She actually slid into the limo to get a picture of the 3 other couples who were in there with me. Meanwhile, I remained horribly mortified.

Finally we left and stopped off at one of the girls' house for hors-d'oeuvres and cocktails, which her mother had graciously prepared for us.

Then it was back in the limo to drive down to the (beautiful) golf club where prom was happening. We arrived fashionably (20 minutes) late and had a movie star entrance. Everybody was gathered around to see which limo was dropping who off, and everybody was watching as we got out (thank goodness no one tripped).

I met up with my parents for (yet more) pictures, cocktails, and a bit of dancing with my dad. Then, the parents left and dinner was served (salad, pasta, chicken, chocolate cake. mmmm ...)

After that the awards were given out. A good friend of mine got Most Artistic, and a gorgeous guy I know got Best Eyes. The prom King and Queen opened the first dance and I dragged the boy against his will to the dance floor so I could get at least one dance out of him.

Since the boy and I aren't much for dancing in general, we headed outside to take a walk. I finally could take off my shoes and let my poor feet relax. A bunch of guys were smoking cigars, and the boy, even though he had quit smoking and drinking in general, wanted to join in. I decided to, for once, step into my role as the overbearing girlfriend and told him that if he smoked, I wouldn't kiss him for the rest of the night.

I felt justified in doing this because this is exactly how he got back in this kind of stuff the last time around. And besides, who wants to kiss cigar-breath?

We held hands and I carried my shoes and we made out under a street lamp and it was just such a perfect way to spend a night.

Then we went back up for a bit and I got to do other fun stuff without the boy, like primping insanely in the bathroom and dancing like a maniac with the coolest bunch of girls ever to the sultry sounds of the Grease soundtrack. An all around great time.

Everybody started leaving to go to the after-prom, and there was a bit of confusion as to what the boy and I were going to do. We didn't want to go to the after-prom, because all it would be was drinking, drugs and sex. We finally decided to hang out at our friend's house.

I hitched a ride from my mom (who was sleeping when I called her) and I went home to change. When I got to the friend's house, the boy was there, and him and his friends were playing Risk. Now, this sounds like the dorkiest way to spend prom night, but for some reason it feels like I'll treasure the memory of bad jokes that we made around the Risk board much more than I would've treasured the memory of people getting piss drunk all around me.

After a little while, since we were in my old neighbourhood, the boy and I decided to go outside to find some place quiet. As we were walking we talked about all kinds of things, about mutual friends and experiences and what we thought of this and that. The boy told me about his plan to seduce me into having sex with him that night. I punched him playfully in the arm because he SO KNOWS that I would never do that kind of thing. Not having sex in general, but on this night in particular? Having sex on prom night for the first time is so ... cliche.

I won't go too much into details about what we DID do, but we found an empty park and lay in the wet grass (and I mean WET grass. My pants were soaking) and looked at the stars and kissed and touched ...

We walked back to our friend's slowly, and of course we got teased when we came back in because our friends are crooked like that.

Later on that night some more of our friends came back from the Party of Mass Drunkeness, and it was sort of weird to see all these people under the influence. It made me kind of uncomfortable, mostly because they were laughing at nothing and everything and we were completely sober ... it was just strange.

I talked to a guy (Mr. Best Eyes) who I suspect is trying to get with my friend, and I was trying to set them up because they would make such a cute couple ... He was sort of drunk so he talked a lot, about how sweet and perfect she was and how he regretted not meeting her earlier this year. He acted like it was all over before it started.

I told him he should go see her the following morning, and I hope he did.

Around 4:30 AM I got a ride home, and I went to bed.

And that was my prom night. Oh, the memories. The moments that will stay in my mind forever : The look on the boy's face. The way that girl looked so much like an angel. The boys in the dark, walking through the arch in their tuxes. The sight of the boy waiting for me in the middle of a parking lot. Grease Lightning. Kids acting like grownups. Conquering North America. Taywood Park.