Courtney at a High School Dance

As I have mentioned in previous posts I am a high school guidance counselor.  I love my job and really do try hard to have a positive relationship with all my students.  I truly do mean that...ALL of them.  I figure, I cannot to my job well if my students do not trust and respect me.

ANYWAY, I try really hard to stay involved, but the one thing I have always avoided in my 12 years of working in education is chaperoning high school dances.  I have avoided it like the plague.  What is the big deal?  Well, I also avoided them in high school.  I went to a total of 2 dances in high school...the homecoming dance my Senior year and Senior prom...This was in 1997.

Let's relive some good 'ol 'memories...

I went to homecoming with my gay friend, Tim.  Not a big deal, he was a dear friend...but I was the chubby chick who went to homecoming with the gay guy.  It wasn't bad.  He and I always had fun together. Before the dance, he treated me to dinner at a Frisch's Big Boy.  That doesn't SOUND bad unless you know what the Richmond, Indiana Frisch's was like in October 1997...not exactly meeting health codes, I imagine. What could I expect though...it wasn't like my date was trying to impress me so that he could get to first base at the end of the evening... Later at the dance we ended up ditching one another.  For the record, he ditched me first.  I ended up dancing the night away with my group of girl friends.  We had a GREAT time and I ended up getting a ride home with one of them.  I cannot, for the life of me, find a picture of this event. There is probably one hanging around at my parents' house somewhere.

Prom:  It is supposed to be this magical evening.  Instead of going with a guy, I went with a group of my friends.  This isn't a bad thing at all.  We made a lasagna dinner at my house and then went on to the prom. It was just sooooo disappointing.  We got there and we were all thinking, "THIS is prom??!!"  We ended up leaving early and going back to my place for junk food and movies.  I DO have a picture of that. However, I have tastefully covered the faces of my friends, because the one person in this picture that I am still friends with, would probably KILL me if I posted this picture to the world with her face fully visible.

Look at this picture, I am wondering a few things.  Why did I butcher my hair right before the prom, so that I had no way of styling it whatsoever?  How did I get a corsage?  I think my mom bought it for me.  Wow, I look like an eggplant.

ANYWAY, let's fast forward to 2014 shall we?  Here I am actually chaperoning a dance.  I felt like an old woman.

I found myself thinking the following:

"I cannot believe her mother let her out of the house like that.  I would lock Darcy in the closet first.  She looks like she is showing up for an audition for a Sir Mix-a-Lot video."

"Man, it is almost 11:00. This is way past my bedtime!  Sooo, sleepy!"

"They are dancing way too close."

"So, THAT is what the Dougie is!"

"Are they dancing or is this foreplay?"

"Sitting at a side table, drinking punch, and watching everyone else dance...not much has changed in 17 years."

Then there was a moment where the kids requested that we listen to something "old school" and they played Michael Jackson's "Bad"....  Michael Jackson is not old school, damn it!!  Michael Jackson is TIMELESS! TIMELESS, I tell you!  ;o)

Damn, whippersnappers...