Prom night!

Even though we are a year apart, my sister Michelle and I graduated high school together in 1990, because I was a bit of a juvenile delinquent back then, and I stayed back in the 10th grade - but hey, I graduated eventually! Better late than never, right? So the year we graduated from high school, I was 18 and she was 17.

On the morning of graduation, Michelle woke me up with a surprise - a positive pregnancy test. OMG - I'm gonna be an auntie! And I'll tell you what - that sister of mine took what could be described as anything BUT the ideal situation and she made the best of it. Her son Eric was born on January 31, 1991, and he was just the most adorable, smartest baby that ever was! Everyone adored him - and when you're a teenager and you have a million friends, let me tell you - that is a LOT of lovin'!

I was very close with my nephew, and I got to spend a lot of time with him. When he was about 3 or 4 years old, somehow the topic of "the prom" came up, and he said that he was going to bring me to his prom. I was so touched, I never let him forget it. It became a running joke for the next 12 years or so, and when Eric was about 13 years old, he started to get nervous - as he should have, he KNOWS me.... So he would say to me, "auntie - you are NOT really coming to the prom, I'm not going to tell you where it is!" And I would laugh and say "maybe I'll offer to be a chaperone, and I can wear my prom dress and dance with you!"

Fast-forward to last week. My nephew, that precious baby with the big blue eyes - yeah, he's SEVENTEEN years old now! *sigh* And guess what? He's a JUNIOR in high school, and do you know what that means? JUNIOR PROM, baby! So I started to think, maybe I'll behave (yeah, right) and just let it go. Then the day of prom comes, and Eric stops by my work and on the way out, he says to me, "don't forget your dress tonight." Well, how could I resist that temptation, I ask you?? I simply cannot. I ran home during my lunch break and grabbed this fancy dress that I had from when I went to a political fundraiser about 10 years ago, it was definitely suitable for the prom! So Cassidy (my 13-year-old daughter) came back to work with me, and she is letting me know that as far as she is concerned, I am certifiably insane. I console her on her genes and warn her that I am her future. She might as well embrace the insanity that runs in her blood, as there is simply no avoiding it. ;o)

So the plan was to go to Michelle's house after work to see Eric and take pictures. I called Michelle on my way over, and told her to keep Eric in the back of the house. Cassidy and I ran into the basement and I quickly changed into my prom dress. We could not stop laughing - we could hear Michelle talking to Eric and he was wondering why she had the video-camera out - so I go running up the stairs in my dress and into the kitchen yelling "your prom date is here!" Eric was hysterical, and he had a friend there who must have thought (correctly) that Eric has one of the craziest families he'd ever met. Here is a picture of me and Eric:


And then,. being the good-natured, wonderful kid that he is, he even POSED with me, this is us doing the "sexy pose":

Now I should tell you that Eric's real date was not there yet, and when he left to pick her up, I went and put my normal clothes back on and pretended to be a rational, sane woman. LOL This is Eric and his real date, beautiful Noel:


So that's the story and I told Eric to be thankful that at least the joke is over now. But wait, there's always SENIOR PROM..........