1904-01-01 - 2:53 a.m.
I have a suspicion that tonight will be less like my actual prom experience and more like the anticipated prom experience, which I envisioned throughout high school if I envisioned going to prom at all, which most of the time I didn't. But since I will probably go out to the big wall that will pass for an event at New College, I will consider what I will probably face:
| Anticipated Prom | Actual Prom |
| No date | Date with beautiful ballet dancer |
| No transportation | Limo shared with two other couples who I was mostly friends with |
| Set in that same Mariott near the high school where every formal function happens | Set in the Wyndham hotel in downtown Miami |
| Strongest memory of the actual event: Something observed while sulking in the corner as usual | Strongest memory of the actual event: Telling my European history teacher about parallels drawn from Weimar Germany in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. |
| Going home afterwards | Going to a hotel suite on Miami Beach with two bedrooms and balconies with views of the ocean and downtown Miami |
| No alcohol | A quasi-full bar with the bartender friend of someone in our group; getting drunk for the first time, loving it, and eventually passing out on the floor of the suite in my tux |
| No sex | Waking up at three a.m. with a girl on top of me who was not my date, rolling over and ending up on top of her bisexual boyfriend, and laughing and groping hysterically (yet if I hadn't actually passed out, I might have ended up with my clothes off) |
It's kind of funny to think about anticipated prom now, because while I had every intention of ditching prom, there was an unconnected plan to go to Graduation PCP with a friend whose boyfriend (two years older than her) was a New College student. However, this girl found out that PCP was the same weekend as prom, and decided that there was no question -- prom instead of PCP. I was shocked, and I tried to cajole her into changing her mind -- she was very Goth, which made it kind of weird that she wanted to go so bad, although admittedly I'll never understand the impulse to go to prom -- so as a consolation prize she included me (and my date, who was also a friend of hers) in her elaborate prom plans. Now prom has come to New College, brought by a very un-goth person, and we shall see if New College & prom cancel each other out. I think they will.
