Prom Time For Rachel

Well it was time, once again, last night, for Rachel to get all decked out in her fanciest clothes and go to the “Prom”.  I dropped her off and then stayed for a few minutes to chronicle the event photographically.  But after a few moments, one of the teacher/chaperones gave me a “two minute warning”.

“You have two more minutes and then you have to go, Mr. Marler,” she said to me over the sounds of the blaring disco music.  [Was it really “disco” music?  I don’t know.  I can’t even figure out how to classify music anymore.  Whatever they were playing sounded like part disco and part rap….with just a hint of “Gregorian Chant”.  But what do I know?  ….I know, I sound “old”.]

She gave me the two minute warning with a condescending tone of voice that suggested I was one of those pathetic parents who doesn’t know how to let go and leave the kid to handle things on her own.  Sheeesh!!!  So, thirty-five minutes later, I was on my way.

It was interesting to see Rachel interacting with the other Prom attendees—her peers from school.  In my brief time, I noticed three categories of people for Rachel: 1) boys that she seemed to be flirting with; 2) kids she was mad at due to some previous incident from school; and 3) kids whom she “corrected” because they weren’t behaving the way she thought they should behave.  (The kids that Rachel corrected didn’t seem to be the least bit interested in her opinion on matters.  And I suspect these might be people who will soon be moving into Rachel’s category #2.)

In previous years, Rachel’s Prom experience hasn’t always been wonderful, so when I went to pick her up, I was happy to see a big smile on her face.  She ran to greet me and gave me a big hug.  I said, “Did you have fun?”:

She said, “Yes.”

I said, “Are you ready to go?”  And she promptly ditched me for about 10 minutes as she did some more mingling with the crowd.  It seems like it went pretty well.