* After getting home from my colleague's talk last night, I decided to try the dvd player with other dvds, just in case the exercise one had got damaged or something. The dvd player itself seems to be failing - won't read some of the dvds it formerly would. So I guess it's time to invest in a new one. I will have to see what kinds of low bells-and-whistles players are out there. I guess some of the newer models will connect to the Internet so you can view Netflix programming and stuff but also, I've found, the higher the complexity, the greater the chance for epic failure. (And one of the connected models, I read some reviews on it, and people said the updating-firmware stuff was a pain, that it often led to the unit messing up). Oh well.
* There's a tv ad locally: "Prom is the most important night of the year!" Really? I don't know. (I didn't go to my own prom; by the time I worked up the courage to ask the guy I wanted to, someone else had asked him. And yes, no one asked me*. One of my friends was going to her boyfriend's prom at another school, one of my friends was going to our prom with the guy she was kinda-sorta friends with, a third friend didn't want to go, so the idea of us going in a big group and going without dates wasn't possible, and I wasn't spending what a dress would cost (and the tickets) just to go and stand in a corner and leave early).
(*As a teen, I took this as evidence of my utter hideousness but now as an adult I wonder if it was perhaps I intimidated some of the chaps a little - I had a friend from grad school, after I had graduated and left, comment that "Tom (not his real name) wanted to ask you out but he was always a little afraid to." Granted, Tom wasn't quite my type - but generally, if a guy asked me out, I'd go out with him at least once. I mean, unless he had a super-bad reputation, like someone who tried stuff that shouldn't be tried on a first date and got really pushy about it)
I wonder, though. It seems sometimes prom has become almost like a mini-wedding, at least from the standpoints of the trappings and expenses. (And, I say cynically, prom being what it's become, perhaps there are a few quiet weddings in the summer months after the prom...)
Heh. One memory - we were all given "invitations" in the form of glasses (or coffee mugs? I forget which) and it said "Touch of class" on them. Showing mine to my friend, I covered up the "cl" with my thumb and said that was more like what people were expecting Prom to be, and another friend proposed changing the C to a G (a lot of drinking went on after prom....)
I dunno. The Grand Galloping Gala it was not, I assume. I would have liked it and considered going if there weren't all the crazy things like those I listed above tied to it - if it was just a show up, hang out with your friends, drink some Hi-C, maybe dance a little, and then go home, sort of thing.
(I also sometimes think maybe there needs to be a "make-up prom" for those of us who never went as teens. Oh, I'd probably hate the thought of going out and buying a big poofy dress that I might wear to just one event, but then again, maybe we could just dress "sophisticated casual" and leave it at that. And all of the insanity of after-prom parties and someone renting a hotel room and getting an older friend to buy beer wouldn't happen, because we're all old and would want to go home at 10 pm to go to sleep....)
* This is the last weekend with much in the way of open-time before the deluge hits (next week, I collect a major paper in one class, and on the same day, lab books in another one. Good planning there, fillyjonk.)
I'm considering going and doing something - either antiquing or maybe just going to the stores I like to go to but generally skip in my Friday afternoon mad-dash to get groceries somewhere a little nicer than the local Wal-mart. I don't know. I do take up a paper today I will have to grade, and I have two exams to write...And I have a salad to make and a 'finger food' to make for Monday.
I'm tired. I'd like a full day without other responsibilities, without the cook/clean/practice/exercise whatever nagging in the back of my head so I can just sit down and do something fun.
2 comments:
My wife teaches 8th grade in an inner city school. They "graduate" at the end of the year with a whole day celebration. Robes and motarboards, dinner and a dance afterwards. Mainly b'c (sadly) many of these kids will not graduate high school. Sue's co-teachers worked for a couple years to change the graduation to something else. They wanted to impress upon the kids that graduating high school was the big deal, not 8th grade. They had a cotillion style party for a few yrs and they tried to get the kids interested instead to going to disney's education location last yr but nope... the parents and the kids prefer the graduation. And it really bums me. They rent these kids limos and hotel rooms for the night. They really do treat it as a prom/graduation b'c they know those milestones are out of their reach. Prom isn't important, real graduation kinda is. So I completely get what you are saying. And it is wasted on those who advertise crap like that.
Our prom was pretty tame, I guess. My big regret is that I didn't get a typical fluffy, poofy prom dress. I wasn't really picked on but I wasn't popular either and I kind of had this feeling that everyone looked down on me so I was obsessed with always appearing more mature than my classmates so I insisted on having a grown-up style fancy dress. I liked it at the time but now I regret that I never had a poofy dress.
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