Prom 2006

I just got my pictures back from prom. I know you guys were dying to hear about the big night, but I was waiting to blog about it until I could post the pictures.
I didn't get asked to the dance. Instead, I did the asking. But I managed to get a date, anyway, which is the important part. To go to the Geek Prom without a date, would have been, well, really geeky.
For the girls out there, I have to tell you all about my outfit. I tried on a dozen dresses at Goodwill. Finally, the thirteeenth dress was the ONE. It was a perfect out-of-style white Jessica McClintock A-Line with giant white flowers printed on it. It's difficult to describe the white-on-white effect, but the fabric is textured so you can see and feel the floral print.
I picked out the perfect pair of platform sandals at Payless. They're made out of cork, and have iridescent sequins stuck to them. While they didn't exactly match my dress perfectly, I've always wanted to own a pair of cork shoes. As fashion unconscious as I am, I'll probably get lots of use out of them, pairing them with all kinds of dresses that they don't match. I already wore them out to go bar-hopping in Rosemount. (The Rosemount bar scene is a little bit hipper than the Farmington one. If I'm going out on the town in Farmington, I'm more apt to wear my Skechers sneakers than a pair of platforms.)
I accessorized my prom outfit with a black velvet purse with giant rhinestones and a tiara with purple, yellow and pink flowers glued to it. Of course, I had a beautiful corsage, with white and purple silk flowers.
My date, Joey, wore yellow rimless glasses, a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches and a Tator Tots T-shirt from the movie Napolean Dynamite. (That's a nifty movie for and about geeks.)
We didn't even consider renting a limo, since Joey owns a sporty '94 Ford Probe SE. He picked me up in the Probe, and whisked us away to Cosetta's Italian deli for a lovely cafeteria-style dinner of cheese pizza slices and Miller Lite, served on brown plastic trays. I noticed a few of the other diners admiring my dress, espcially a little girl who thought my outfit was a princess costume. Her dad told her not to stare.
We were, in truly geeky fashion, the first ones to arrive at prom. The prom was held at the Science Museum of Minnesota. The musuem atrium was decorated beautifully with purple balloons, inflatable palm trees and a rainbow of colored candles flickering on the tables. The band, who was the aptly named "The Band Geeks", was setting up for the dance. Joey and I picked up our numbers for the King and Queen of the Prom contest. I was number eight and he was number nine.
Then we headed over to the judges, who interviewed us throughly and scored us on how geeky we are. Joey scored much higher than I did. I told the judge that I was a software engineer. He frowned and said, "So, what's geeky about that?" One of the other judges gave me some points for owning a functioning C64 computer, but I could tell they were clearly not impressed. I should have worn my glasses with the Transitions lenses. Those would have earned me a few points. The judges scored Joey really high on his abilities to re-wire LED lights and read electronic schematics. They appreciated his Tator Tots T-Shirt.
The evening was truly magical. The musuem was open only for prom attendees, so we had a chance to get close to all of the exhibits. We learned about the science of mixing drinks, held a tyrannasaurus Rex tooth, and popped our heads into an auditorium where geeks were playing video games on a giant movie screen. Joey bought us tickets to the Omni Theater. I sucessfully navigated the steep steps to our seats in my cork platforms. We watched a movie about the cosmos that explained sub-atomic particles. On the way out the door, I overheard one of the other geeks say disparagingly, "That was a little elementary." I knew then that I was amongst my peers. Only a geek would find sub-atmoic particles elementary!
I'm guessing the highlight of the evening for Joey was playing with diodes and LEDs at the electricity exhibit. For me, the highlight was learning how the monitor on my Pillowtop laptop works. They have an exhibit that actually uses a Toshiba Satellite 325 CDS to demonstrate the inner workings of a laptop screen. I am so proud that my laptop is special enough to be displayed at the Science Museum.
Before leaving, we watched the crowning of the prom royalty. As the new King and Quuen of the Geek Prom beamed proudly, the band broke into a raucous punk song. Then about a half-dozen nude male geeks streaked through the crowd. I couldn't help but stare, as if I was rubber necking a car accident or seeing a train wreck. They must have had too much of the spiked punch.
After one last slow dance, it was time for the evening to end. It went by so quickly we didn't even have time to participate in the dissection of the cow's eye. This was the best prom ever. I hope next year I get asked to the Geek Prom. I'm already thinking about what to wear. If you have any suggestions for geek chic dresses, please shoot me an email or comment on this post.

Joey and Mary - Prom 2006
In Front of T-Rex Skull