Prom

As the end of the school year has approached, I have encouraged Brandt to plan on attending prom with Ruth, his girlfriend. He has been reluctant. He has said Ruth didn't want to go, he didn't want to go, it was expensive, and school dances are stupid. I said," You are going to Prom." I was confident that Ruth would want to go, and also confident that no one else would ask her because she is Brandt's girlfriend. So I more than encouraged him to ask her.

Eventually, Brandt did ask Ruth, by saying, "Want to go to Prom?" She said yes. There was none of the fun Prom asking activity, no poster, no funny anything, but that's okay. Ruth had enough time to find a dress, and they made plans.

Made plans implies there was lots going on and they needed to arrange it all. That's not really the case. Both Brandt and Ruth are heavily involved in Big Fish, the last play of the year. They had a matinee performance today, so no day date. Teching for the show was their day date. I did tell Brandt they needed to go to dinner, so right after the show, they went down to spicy Thai for dinner.

After dinner, they returned to our house to get ready. I helped Ruth with her hair, pinning up the front and curling it down the back. They both looked terrific. We took some pictures in the front yard, and shortly before the dance started, they headed off to the library.

Timpview does a legitimate promenade, where couples are announced by name, come down the front steps of the library, and then walk past a large crowd of parents and friends who have come to watch. Kent and I were in the crowd, awaiting their appearance outside in the cold. Brant and Ruth were probably the fourth couple out the door. I took several pictures, had Kent take video on his phone, and cheered loudly as they came out. They returned to the dance, inside in the warm, but Kent and I stayed and visited with neighbors and cheered on other dance attendees who we know and love.

Brandt returned much earlier than I expected. He said the dance was lame and he and Ruth were both tired from having been involved in Big Fish. They were both fine to be done. Even if he wasn't, I'm glad Brandt went to Prom.

And now, Brandt will tell us what he thought of Prom, in his own words.

Prom was fun. I had a great time with Ruth, but school dances are kind of lame in my opinion because I work for a party company and those parties are always really fun. I am not a big romance person, I don't do really anything romantic.

Ruth's mom made the flowers for both of them.