Prom: a comparative study

My sister's dress:

Grecian-influenced, a lovely color, figure-flattering -- shit, dye it white and I'd wear this now as a wedding gown. I'm so insanely jealous that this picture is how my sister gets to remember her prom. 

On the other hand:

OK, first: CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE SCHOOL BUS. My prom group wanted to be "different" and also cheap (we had 12 couples) so they hired a big yellow bus to drop us off at prom. I don't want to talk about it.

Second: the more I look at this picture, the more I dislike my dress. There's nothing particularly offensive about it, I guess, it's just "meh." Plus, it pinches my under-arm flab and makes me look stumpy. Its purchase was the result of a harrowing day of unsuccessful dress shopping. When you've tried on dozens of dresses and all of them look terrible, you'll settle for anything. Even a $14.99 dress from the clearance rack.

My sister's hair and makeup:

She got her hair done by my stylist Jen, who is a genius. I love that it's soft and not over-styled and yet it's formal enough for a special occasion. Her makeup looks really natural and blended, her eye makeup opens her eyes up like crazy, and the colors are awesome for her complexion. And I swear I'm not just saying all that because I did her makeup :P

On the other hand:

Clown City. What is UP with lip liner? I don't even want to talk about the eye makeup. As you can see, my best friend is suffering from a similar problem (we got our makeup done at the same place), but she looks a little better. My hair is just pathetic. The woman took one look at my short haircut and basically gave up. Then she was like, here, I'll curl it and pin your bangs up. And I was like ARE YOU SERIOUS. THIS IS WHAT MY HAIR LOOKS LIKE EVERY DAY. 

Also, the matchy-matchy choker necklace was such. A bad. Idea. 

(Also: ugh, the UNDER ARM FLAB. Why didn't anyone tell me about that when I showed them my dress?!

My sister's experience

As far as I can tell, she had a pretty good time. They played all of her favorite songs and she got to dance around like a crazy person with her friends and the food was awesome. Her texts from the afterparty weekend down the shore ranged from pleased to giddy. She came home content, with a hoarse voice from all the talking, laughing, and singing. I'm sure it wasn't the best weekend of her life, but it seemed like she hadn't really expected anything but a moderately good time anyway, so she wasn't disappointed.

On the other hand:

I had never been to a formal dance before, and the only exposure I'd had to prom was what I saw in She's All That and Ten Things I Hate About You and Pretty in Pink. Naturally, it seemed to me that prom was supposed to be this magical night where anything was possible, where latent romances bloom and friendships are defined. I expected nothing short of the best time of my life. 

What I got was a group of catty girls who wouldn't compliment one another, a date who was a dud, a shitty DJ (not that any of my friends would dance, anyway), an early departure (we left after 2 1/2 hours) and a rainy weekend down the shore. It was kind of the exact opposite of a magical night where anything was possible. Sure, we were a coed group of eighteen teenagers living in an unsupervised shore house for the weekend, and that fact alone should have created some kind of uncontrollable vortex of drama. But nothing happened. Nobody hooked up, nobody had any heart-to-hearts, there wasn't a wild, debaucherous party, and there was nary a poignant moment to be had. The weekend was at its best, ordinary, and at its worst, completely and mind-numbingly boring. We wouldn't have made a very good episode of True Life: I'm Going To Prom, is what I'm saying.

But now it's just part of the past. I even feel like it shaped me, in some small way, by showing me that sometimes our expectations prove to be to much to live up to, and that it's always better to focus on your friends rather than Boy Stuff. It's one of the times in my life that I look back on with equal parts bitterness and nostalgia, if I look back on it at all. But seeing my sister pose with her friends and pin a boutonnière to her date's lapel and ascend, smiling, up the stairs of the limo bus brought all of the memories flooding back, good and bad. It was a fitting start to a weekend that had me looking back on a lot of good times, and looking forward to making more.

bits of tid

1) My sister's senior prom is today, and since my prom experience sucked, I'm living vicariously through hers. She's already way ahead of me, as her hair is super classy (whereas mine was too short to do anything real with) and her dress makes her look like Vanna White (whereas mine looked like it was SO TWO SEASONS AGO [probably because I had bought it the year prior]) and she has realistic expectations about what the night will be like (whereas I had watched too many John Hughes movies and am still waiting for some hottie in a white tux to plant a surprise kiss on me in the parking lot at the end of the night).

2) I finally got a haircut and I feel like a new woman! After a brief period of experimentation with other stylists, I went back to my favorite, Jen. And I'm so incredibly glad. She... completes me. She gave me the rocking-est piecey, funky bangs ever. I didn't even know I could pull this shit off. Pictures soon to come, maybe.

3) I got this awesome award from Heather. Seriously, people, these AWARDS. I can't tell you how much I appreciate all of them. This one is called, adorably, the "Super Comments" award, which definitely sounds like a Pokemon trance mode. And check the graphic, yo. Witness the majesty of the Mighty Panda Bear:

Passing the award is my favorite part of this whole process. I'll be tagging some super-effective commenters on Saturday!

4) Until then, I'll be down the shore with my BFF. It's our first shore trip of the summer so we're not going to get too fancy or quirky with our activities: we're gonna walk the boards and frolick in the waves and squish our toes into the sand and bask in the sun and just do Beach Stuff. I'm so excited.

Have a happy Friday, have a great weekend, and DFTBA. 

memes and mommies

I just discovered Sunday Stealing, which is a meme made up of only "stolen" memes that they collect from all over the blogosphere. It's very meta. I think. Sometimes I'm not quite sure I know exactly what "meta" means. But anyway. Let's DO this.

1. What's your favorite Dr. Seuss book? 

How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

2. If you could live in any home on a television series, what would it be?

When I was younger, it was definitely Clarissa's room in Clarissa Explains it All. Now I just want to live in Lorelai and Rory Gilmore's house. And I want a town troubadour and the Bracebridge dinner and Luke's diner too. Is that so much to ask?

3. What's the longest you've gone without sleep?

Hm. I'm thinking of a specific occasion (but that's another blog post) and I think it was like, 25 hours or something. And all I remember is feeling like walking death.

4. What's your favorite Barry Manilow song?

OH MANDY WELL YOU CAME AND YOU GAVE WITHOUT TAAAKING

5. Who's your favorite Muppet?

Beaker!

6. What's the habit you're proudest of breaking?
Up until a fairly advanced age, I used to eat my own boogers. Yeah. Really, really glad I stopped doing that.

7. What's your favorite website?

According to my browser's history, it's Cracked.com. I would agree.

8. What's your favorite school supply?

Highlighters!

9. Who's your favorite TV attorney?

Marshall!

10. What was your most recent trip of more than 50 miles?
I drove up to my friend's apartment in Astoria, NY to perform some Broken Heart First Aid. It was a hard weekend -- but worth it. Incidentally, that also marks the first time I extensively worked on a Mac and realized they weren't Enigmatic Mystery Machines.

11. What's the best bargain you've ever found at a garage sale or junk shop?
Wow, I don't know if I've ever been to a garage sale or a junk shop. I guess the closest thing is that once, I found an amazing chartreuse lounge chair at a Goodwill for like $50, but... I didn't have the money or any reason whatsoever to buy it. Sigh.

12. Where were you on September 11, 2001?
I was in 9th grade at the time, so I was at school. I hate to say that it wasn't that hard of a day for me -- I was only 14 and although I could tell that it was very bad (my teachers were crying and many people went home) I didn't quite understand what was going on until I came home to an empty house and  saw all of the footage on the news. Then my sister, 9 years old at the time, got back and I couldn't believe how happy I was to see her alive and I told her what happened and we just hugged and cried until my mom came home. God. Not a great time.

13. What's your favorite tree?

Weeping Cherry. We used to have one of these in my backyard and I spent a lot of summer days leaned up against it reading. Then my dad chopped it down. Oooh, I'm still sore about that. 

14. What's the most interesting biography you've read?
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (or at least, that's the one that stands out the most right now).

15. What do you order when you eat Chinese food?
Chinese isn't usually my first choice, but sometimes I get wicked cravings for sesame chicken.

16. What's the best costume you've ever worn?

Asian Juno!

17. What's your least favorite word?
"Clumpy." Augh. Ew. Gross. Blech. Gag.

18. If you had to be named after one of the 50 states, which would it be?
Alaska. Because of the John Green book, not because of any particular allegiances or affiliations. Cough.

19. What's your favorite bear?
Ummm. Gummi.

20. Describe something that's happened to you for which you have no explanation.
Ok, let's see if I can explain this. Once my friends and I were walking the Ocean City, NJ boardwalk and another group of girls were walking towards us. As we crossed paths, one of the girls ran into my friend Karen, hysterically screamed at her like she had just seen a ghost, and then ran away. We have NO IDEA why. We don't think it was a prank or a dare, since it's not even like she and her friends subsequently pointed and laughed in that "I-can't-believe-you-just-DID-that" way. It was totally bizarre.

21. If you could travel anywhere in Africa, where would it be?

Marrakesh, please!

22. What did you have for lunch yesterday?
A large #1 meal at Chick-Fil-A. That's the chicken sandwich, for those of you who aren't tragically addicted to Crack-Fil-A like me.

23. Where do you go for advice?
My cousin Abbey, my parents, my friends, my sister, and occasionally the Internet.

24. Which do you use more often, the dictionary or the thesaurus?

Thesaurus!

25. Have you ever been snorkeling? Scuba diving?
Snorkeling, yes -- on a tropical island in the Philippines, no less! It was THE BOMB. I've never been scuba diving, but I am dying to learn.

Okay -- last thing is a quick weekend update: 

• I came a little bit closer to making a decision vis-a-vis the Mac vs. PC thing. Thank you for your comments/input!
• I went and saw Iron Man 2 and thoroughly enjoyed it, and now I'm all fangirl squee-ing over the potential Avengers movie that Joss Whedon is allegedly maybe possibly rumored to be directing GAH.
• I celebrated Mother's Day with... my mom. And my sister. We went shopping and helped her pick out an awesome purple dress for my cousin's July wedding. Hooray for my mommy. And your mommy. Mommies in general, really. 

What about you? Did you (and/or your mom) have a kick-ass weekend?

shake it up and down

One thing you should know about me is that I spend nearly all of my free time with my boyfriend Matt, and I'm not particularly ashamed to admit that. I mean, I'd love to divide my time evenly between my friends and my boyfriend, but I don't get to see my BFFs on a regular basis, because one of them lives in Queens, one of them lives in Hartford, CT, and one of them is a first-grade teacher and therefore has no life. It's sad because we all used to live 8 minutes from each other and some of my best memories were made possible by this proximity. But that's another post.

Anyway, Matt and I are usually pretty boring. We're always having a blast, but from an outside perspective you probably wouldn't think so. We wouldn't make for very good reality TV, is what I'm saying. 

Sometimes he comes over and we do couples stuff like go out for dinner or ride bikes or sit in a Starbucks and discuss whether we prefer the Marvel or DC universe. 

Sometimes we stay in and watch Mythbusters or a movie or try to get through as many episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion as we can before I fall asleep (I actually like NGE... but that's another post). 

Sometimes we end up spending 3 1/2 hours doing quizzes on Sporcle, my absolute favorite procrastination tool. Once we did one where you have to name all the Generation One Pokemon characters, and we got all of them except two. #thatkindofgeek

Sometimes I realize I needed to upload and edit some pictures and I do that for 40 minutes while Matt watches hockey (alternately, sometimes we watch hockey together). 

But yesterday my sister Melanie joined us. Mel is basically like a perfect clone of me. We have the same face and body type, the same voice, even disturbingly similar personalities. Our only difference is that my boobs are bigger and more luscious and appealing than hers.

But my point is that when my sister, Matt, and I get together, everything is way more hilarious. For instance, Matt and I had played Super Mario Wii before, and we'd had a good time marveling over the game and taking it extremely seriously. Here's a sample of quotes from those nights, to give you an idea of the mood:

Wow, this level is really fun. 

I love how faithful they were to the original game.

What are Goombas supposed to be?

I wonder why we haven't found any Warp Zones yet.

etc., so on.

But last night Mel played too. Now I'll share the quotes that were generated from that event. 

The "Anyone Listening Who Didn't Know What We Were Doing Would Be Confused" ones:

It'd be nice if it were the end of the world, but it's not.

::Gasp! It is! It IS the end of the world!

The "Penguin" series, which there were many of, since we were in the ice level:

It's impossible without being a penguin, don't you agree?

It's never a penguin when you need it to be.

I don't think he needs to be a penguin here.

And my personal faves, the "That's What She Said" ones:

Awww, you forgot to be big.

Oh! Shake your thing up and down. Shake it up and down. There you go. 

Yay! Now you can beat it even more!

So I guess the moral of this story is, hooray for sisters. And hooray for video games. And hooray for quotes taken out of context. All of those things make life a little more awesome.