Prom

I love prom.

Luckily, my job as a teacher enables me to stalk prom without being a weirdo. Okay, somewhat.

I wasn't that into prom when I was in high school, which is evidenced by my own prom pictures. I only went to two proms, and was probably lucky to go to those (side note: I wasn't too popular in high school. I know, hard to imagine!). My sister got to go to a bazillion proms, which while unfair, sparked my interest.

I love the dresses and the hair. In fact, I can trace the trends in dresses from year to year. This year, dresses made from prints were fashionable. And hair has slowly made it's way from an updo on top to a knot at the neck, or a loose, barrel curl with the sides pinned.

When I look at a school yearbook (which happens a lot more than you might think...I was also on the yearbook staff in high school and am obsessed with analyzing others' pica spacing, articles, and picture facings, even yearbooks in which I have no association with- just in case you didn't know exactly how big of a nerd I was), I go straight to the prom section to see the pictures.

Sometimes when I am traveling somewhere in April or May and I pass a high school or other establishment where they are having a prom, I will pull over and watch. Which, of course, is really weird when I don't know anyone there...but I do it anyways.

I try to ask innocent questions about hair and dresses of high school girls that I know. It only takes them a couple of minutes to discover my unhealthy obsession with what they are wearing. Astonishingly, they kind of think it's funny. Which is a lot better than them thinking I'm a stalker.

Which is why it was totally okay for me to find stuff to do with two kids in tow in town for five hours yesterday just so I could go to my husband's high school prom and walk around outside looking at the dresses on the pretense that it was for my kids. I mean, it was, they were excited, but Mommy was really excited, too.

And which is why the first thing I did this morning upon awaking was to get on facebook and see if anyone had any pictures of prom posted.

I have actually been invited to chaperone prom with my husband a couple of time, but he doesn't want to go...probably because he senses my obsession might get out of control. I might actually buy my own prom dress then.