Saturday, January 23, 2010

Last Year's Military Ball

SO! I went to military ball last year, and I posted this on my other blog. I forgot how long-winded I used to be. Check it out:

More than you’ll ever care enough to know about my date Friday

Beforehand: as you may well know I asked about five people to the military ball, only three seriously. The sixth (or fourth) said yes. This lovely lady was Sarah Porter. She sits next to me in Spanish 4 and we therefore talk a lot. I didn’t know her much at all even when I asked her to the ball and was surprised at the “yes”. The next week was a flutter of excitement and almost-not-getting-tickets action. I finally got them at the last minute on Wednesday (I think it was wednesday) Thursday I realized I didn’t have Sarah’s address so I got that, and all of the sudden Friday happened.

Getting Ready: I had Pippin music practice after school until 4- giving me about 2 hours of preparation time. I thought that was enough so I slouched around and watched tv, played some games and the like, my mother didn’t say anything. At about 4:30, 4:45 ish I took a shower and shaved, brushed teeth, general hygenic things and got dressed at around 5:20ish. When I did get dressed I showed a few people (through the magic of my awesome new webcam!) what I looked like. THEN my mom tells me I need to do some cleaning and sweeping and a bunch of other stuff— in uniform. Doing what I could without messing myself up I finally got out of the house at 5:50 with just enough time to get to Dilan’s house.

A Ride: I had, through tumblr and the real world combined, secured a ride with Dilan about a month ago for the ball. I got to his house, stood in the front area of his house for a little bit and got in the car (with difficulty, the locks are kind of questionable on that thing) which is a fantastic date car, cushy seats, cozy feeling to it— anyway— Dilan, having lived in Clinton for a long time and being an experienced garage-sale hawk navigated the streets to Sarah’s house with ease.

Meet The Family: I’m cursed with a bad memory. When I rung the doorbell and entered into the Porter home at around 6:00 I remembered that I had told Sarah I would arive at about 6:15ish. She was expecting that. In the time I was waiting I met her parents and siblings. Sadly; I can only remember that her dad’s name was Dirk, and she had a sister that looked just like her. I talked and made nice with them for a while, we talked about what I do in school and what I’m going to get into after school, then I saw the piano. Politely asking, I sat down and played for a while. Halfway through a hymn, because there was a hymn book sitting on the piano, Sarah came down and it was time to take a picture with her. After pictures it was time to go pick up Libbie.

I’ll have her back by 10:30: This was the line I fed Mr. (or Brother, whichever) Porter when we left. I got the door for her as we approached Dilan’s Pimp-Mobile and reminded her that her “beauty tonight rivaled that of the roman goddesses”. It did. In the car we set off to go get Libbie.

A Game of Questions: I could tell fairly quickly that there wasn’t much to talk about and being who I am I had to put an end to that. I turned to Sarah, we were both in the back seat, and said “Hey, I don’t know you very well yet, as you may know, and I’m pretty sure you don’t know me. Wanna play questions?” after a brief explanation of the game we started. *questions is a game of truth or dare without the dare part where you take turn asking eachother basic off-the-wall getting-to-know-you questions. We were very much alike in our uniqueness of answers and more and more as we got into it did I realize that I was really glad to have asked her on a whim to be my date. We picked up Libbie, Dilan gave her some candy, and the game continued. This went on for the rest of the trip to the museum.

Take It or Leave It?: Once there we had some fun with Dilan’s possessed lock system and a little discourse about whether or not Sarah should take her jacket with her inside the dance. Eventually she chose to leave it behind. Getting out I went for her door, took her arm, and led her inside where Dilan signed in our party of four and George took our tickets. A short walk through history and beautiful war machines and we were there: the Military Ball!

Up Your’s Sir: Devin was also there early like us with his date Emma. I joked around with him for a little bit, told him “Up your’s”, he flashed rank, “oh sorry. Up your’s sir” and we were on our way. The dance hadn’t started yet so it was time for food. There was a short conversation with Calvin on etiquite when he rose for me to sit down, and again when I rose for him to leave. Dinner was nice, though the chicken was just a little too messy for the work it took to eat it. I probably should have just stripped the meat off the bones with my fork instead of trying to go primal on it. Throughout dinner people were starting to dance and the floor was almost filled when Sarah and I finished.

Wanna Go For A Walk?: We danced for a song. After this initiatory song we talked about how music was hard to dance to nowadays and how fun it would be if things went back to the way they were when it was just a string quartet with elaborate line dances that everybody knew— now it’s just a heavy bass and keyboard with a crappy line dance everyone knows. It was decided we should get away and go for a walk. The game of questions, if you remember, went on for the whole night. More and more we learned about each other, and how well we would work together as a couple (though that probably wont happen). To go off on a tangent; Sarah is so very very cute, witty, fun, and genuinely intelligent. It was nice to have someone to converse with all night. To avoid more paragraphs on the same subject— These walks happened periodically throughout the dance, every time we decided the music was hard to dance to or we were eating.

It’s Fun To Stay At The—: Right in the middle of one of our walks we both turned around at the same time. Could it be? Was it? YES! DISCO MUSIC! Doing a Bee Gee’s stayin’ alive strut all the way up to the dance floor we got our groove thang on for the YMCA. I’m big into disco, it happens to be one of the best dance styles out there.

Do You Think These Would Make Good Nachos?: Random memory; when we were getting food, Sarah put nacho cheese on sun chips. Reportedly it tasted good.

That Lovin’ Feelin’: The first two measures of a song I’ve heard maybe twice ever in my lifetime came on and the Clearfield ROTC went crazy. I sat back and watched as all of the male cadets dragged Cheif to the center of their circle and sang to her. It was kind of funny. *as another side note, I bought the cassette tape of that band singing that song today at the D.I. when I saw it I couldn’t pass up the chance.

Oh! You Were Going For My Hand: The night wound down, more walks, more techno-rap, more slow music to which we stepped off beat. Eventually it was all over and time to go home, after helping clean up (because Clearfield hosted the dance this year) we found Dilan and Libbie and headed off. I reached for Sarah’s hand as we were heading out and she pulled a way for a second before it clicked in her head what I was doing. I still don’t know exactly what it was she was thinking. Her hands are so warm. —anyway— It was snowing outside so Dilan rushed Libbie, Sarah and me into the car. Of course we played questions, D. Went to go get a brush to wipe off snow and we headed home.

Aww It’s Over?: Sarah was the first to be dropped off. Hand in mine we walked to the door and embraced, exchanged goodnights and just as I started to leave she said “ah the door’s locked!” —click— “I’ll wait with you!” I went back up to her side and we talked a little bit, about ‘doing this again some time’, her dad opened the door, I thanked him for letting me take out his beautiful daughter and remarked on how nice it was meeting the family then it was over. No more date, just me in the back of Dilan’s Pimp-Mobile chatting it up with him and Libbie.

@#$% Locks: Mild conversation ensued on the trip back to my house. Libbie was excited to find out where I lived. When I asked if she was going to stalk me Dilan said it was too late- that was his job… ew. We pulled up to my drive way. Dilan unlocked the door. It didn’t open. He unlocked it again. No opening. More and more, I pulled the lock, it was stuck. Finally as I went for the other door the lock started working. I got out, wished him and Libbie a good night, told Libbie to be careful and winked. What a great night. I’ve never been to prom but I’m guessing Dilan and the rest of the ROTC is right in saying that the Military Ball is better.


I can’t wait til Spanish on tuesday when I get to talk to Sarah again: It’s my turn in our game of questions.

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