The boys in my daughter’s group find out if a girl will go with them before they are asked. So word was out that my daughter did not want to go to prom with Tyler. I don’t know how Tyler was told, but he knew he wasn’t supposed to ask her. However, she did tuck him in to the back of her head as a last resort so she could go to prom. She was hoping Brian or Zach would ask her. No one goes Dutch, which I think would be a good solution rather than expect one friend to pay for both dinner and tickets. Although the boys all decided to go to Bob's Burger and Brew, which sounds inexpensive enough. We don’t have enough money for my daughter to ask her desired date to her school's prom. An additional complication is that her desired date doesn’t go to her high school. So she really did have to wait for him to ask her to his prom.
Brian tells her he would ask her, but he’s going to a relative’s wedding in Alaska. And while he’s there he’s going heli-snowboarding, which as an option to prom, is a no-brainer. So that leaves Zach. Her friend, Nick who is also Zach's friend, tells her Zach is going to ask her. But by now it's the weekend before prom, Zach still hasn’t asked her and Tyler asks someone else so she tells Nick that she’s given up on going and not buying a dress. She tells me she is okay not going; after all it’s her junior prom. But she's going to start saving up now for her senior prom because she's going to go to it. But Nick keeps telling her Zach will invite her.
On Tuesday afternoon I get a call from my daughter, Nick has assured her Zach is going to ask her and she needs to buy the dress and we have to drive 20 miles to the next town because all her friends have been scouring our community (and Bellevue) for dresses and they haven’t seen any they like for her. Now I wish I’d put some time in looking with her. So I get home on this rainy afternoon, we eat leftovers to fortify us and head prom dress shopping. Emily has looked up a couple of places online that she wants to check out. In looking for one place, we find another, Davis Bridal Shop. We look through the clearance rack and find a lovely green dress. We also see the dress we’ve seen advertised that looks so cute in bright rosy pink with roses surrounding the skirt. She is a knockout in the moss green dress with her long dark hair and pale complexion, the color is just right for her. As she stands there, with the low cut of the dress and the way it drapes around her body and her flushed cheeks and red lips, I imagine her as Rose Red in fairy tales and the young woman she is turning out to be. Later when she tells me all the girls are getting spray tans, I have no sympathy that I can’t afford it for her, her complexion is flawless and her coloring lovely. But the dress is a little snug under the arms, also it is too much to wear to a prom with a boy that she barely knows who waits so late to ask her. She doesn’t need to be a princess just yet; after all it’s her junior prom.
We find the other shop; it’s run by a Latina woman and the dress are fun, but a little too much for prom. So we head to the mall. We try Penney’s first because the prices are reasonable, but their slim selection doesn’t offer anything appropriate. We walk along the quiet mall peering into different stores that offer causal clothing. We end up in Macy’s and there we find a dress we both like. I’m surprised I like it on my almost seventeen-year old daughter; it’s black, and rather sophisticated with one strap. Straps are important. Once she went off to one dance in a strapless dress and she was uncomfortable all evening tugging up the front. The dress is snug, but stretchy and she’s comfortable in it. It looks like a dress she can wear again, maybe out for a nice dinner. I open a Macy’s charge account to get 15% off. It’s more than I want to spend, but reasonable for a nice dress she can wear again. So she' got the dress, but no date !
