Hello all. Guess where I am? Camped outside the girls' bathroom at a school dance! Do you think if I keep using exclamation points it will get more exciting?! I don't think so either!

...

...

But to be fair, it does provide a certain level of entertainment. It's a 9th/10th grade dance, so all of the girls have brought the friggin' cutest little boys. Ok, and also some older ones, but most of the boys look like they're 12 as they're being dragged on and off the dance floor by girls. The funniest exchange so far was between two boys waiting on the stairwell for their dates, who were in the bathroom. They couldn't see me, but they were clear as a bell.

Boy #1 (who looks maybe 13 but is desperately trying to look cool and sophisticated): You having fun?

Boy #2 (who is a shorter, younger looking version of Boy#1): Nah. You?

Boy #1: Me either. Well, the first hour it was ok.

Boy #2: Nah, man, the whole thing sucked.

Boy #1: Yeah, well...(significant pause while he attempts to think up some way to regain credibility after admitting he'd actually enjoyed any part of a girls' school dance)...guess it's really just a chance for people to have sex.(pause to asses other boy's reaction) Which is cool.

Boy #2: Yeah, man. Cool.

At this point my giggling must have become audible, because they poked their heads around the corner and saw me, flushed bright red, and ran up the stairs away from me.

I am very bored and will doubtless be spamming the thread with my watch-n-post. In my next post: things that never change at high school dances!

Things That Never Change at High School Dances:

1. Everyone claims the dance sucks.

2. Someone ends up crying in the girls' room.

3. Boys get dragged around the dance by their girlfriends.

4. All the girls end up barefoot (or, alternatively, hobbling around with pained expressions).

5. The DJ sucks.

6. The boys try to pretend they're too cool to dance.

7. Some mortified teacher pretends not to notice the faux sex happening on the dance floor until s/he can't take it anymore and has to break it up.

8. Someone calls the chaperones "Nazis."

9. Someone attempts to spike the punch or, alternatively, talks about how lame it is that no one has spiked the punch.

10. Someone hooks up.

11. Someone breaks up.

12. Someone throws up.

...

There are so many more.

ION, you know the little girl playing softball at the end of the very last ep of Buffy? One of the Potentials whose power gets unleashed with Willow's spell? She's here. This has been your "I spotted a random Buffy extra" announcement for the evening.

Maaaaan! I keep trying to start a coversation, but no one wants to talk with me. I really am at a high school dance.

Daniel C. Jensen - Your Cell phone microphone can be tapped, even if you have it off.

My bro-in-law used to deal with security for a General at the 1st MEF @ Camp Pendeleton. The HQ had strict no cell, no pda, no dig camera zone. He loved nothing more than reaching onto an officers belt and physically ripping the phone off and throwing it down the hallway (thus breaking it). Apparently he had standing orders from the Gen that he (Staff Sarg at the time) was allowed to do it.

Maaaaan! I keep trying to start a coversation, but no one wants to talk with me. I really am at a high school dance

Sorry KT, I didn't get home until 11pm. Woot, working on a burlesque show.

sumi, I am glad you're feeling better. Try to take it easy for as long as you can.

Cashmere, I am so happy to hear you got your injection. I hope you managed some sleep too.

Kristin, you're post brought back so many memories of high school. I hope you managed to have some fun at the dance.

I woke up in pain, so I just took some advil. I'm going to sit here until it kicks in a little. Anyone still awake.

Poor sj!

Matilda is wide awake. Not crying, not fussing, just wide awake. Like near the end of Thelma and Louise when Geena Davis looks off at the far horizon and says, "I feel awake." She just had a good hearty feed, and instead of conking her out it has brought her to an incredibly vivid state of phenomenally conscious consciousness. I think I need laudanum. For her or for me, I don't really care which at this point.

Poor JZ.

JZ, I have a half finished e-mail to you in my draft folder, trying to remember tricks of the trade to make babies sleep. Matilda sounds a lot like Ben, but he started his career as Officer in Charge of Keeping Parents Awake Until They Crave the Rest of the Grave, earlier and was mostly over it by the time he was Matilda's age. Of course, Matilda came early, so maybe that skews the stats.

I hope she found her sleepiness, or at least let you sleep.

eta...

Lee, what are you doing up?

After skimming like a mad thing, I'm just going to offer hugs, chocolate, and unspecified ~ma to everyone and anyone.

What Jilli said.

ion, I thought pigs in blankets were sausages wrapped in bacon. Only not 'hot dogs', because hot dogs are the food of satan. Real sausages. Sausages that are nice. Wrapped in bacon, to make them even nicer.

t / rampant anglophilia

waves

I am typing this from a wee hotel place on the coast of Thailand, which is built out over the sea. Our room is on the pier - you can see the sea through the gaps in the pier as soon as you step out of the door. This is a very good thing and helps with the whole making-room-cool procedure enormously. Because Christmas? Not what you'd call chilly in these parts.

Our Christmas production, however, went v. smoothly. It was on Thursday. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Whoops-A-Daisy Angel went well, and the titular angel actually did act, which is a damn sight more than she'd done at any point in the rehearsal process. Thank God. The angels, you may be interested to know, did not sing "Oh how Angelus we can be!", but instead "Oh how angelic we can be". So that was good. One of them fell off the back of the stage during their big dance number, but he dashed back up the steps and jumped seamlessly into the lineup like a trooper. Comedy gold. Oh, C, who is the best friend of Ray The Cutest Kid In The World, had a wee problem - he realised too late that he'd left his underwear at home, and was sans pants. So he wore his shorts under the Angel Robe, rather than go commando. I had been all 'oh, well, never mind, just don't flash anyone and we should be fine' but he got a bit tearful and mortified, so we tried the still-wearing-clothes-underneath option, and it worked.

Oh, the cuteness!

ion, I win SA for Christmas! Yay!