I Became Prom Queen Last Night!

When one stays at Courtyard by Marriott, you assume 2 things:

1. There will be a courtyard.

2. You will be given access to this courtyard.

This was the night before, Annie and I.

We were down in Hamilton, Ohio for a soccer tournament over the weekend. We’ve stayed at this Courtyard before and our favorite thing about our time there, is sitting around the fire with our friends while our children run amok. So when we were told we had to congregate on only 1/3 of the courtyard because a prom had rented out 2/3 of the courtyard, I was irate.

For a while, the 2/3 of the courtyard remained empty. A group of 20-somethings who never got the message, went over by the fire and sat down for about 30 minutes. The minute they got up, we decided to press our luck and move over. It wasn’t 2 minutes till an employee raced out and moved us to the other side.

“Wait, you just let that group sit there for a half hour. Now we have to move?” I protested.

“We didn’t see them. I’m sorry for the inconvenience but you’ll have to leave. This space is rented.” She said remorseful.

“This is bull shit,” I muttered under my breath as I grabbed my wine purse, glass of wine and left my seat.

This is the spigot of my wine purse. Do you love it?

Prom

Eventually prom goers funneled out to the courtyard. There were princess dresses, two piece dresses and tons of lamé . We saw dresses that should require a hair net for down South and plunging neck lines that rivaled J-Lo. At one point, we thought about taking a set of baby twins one of the soccer parents had and stand in the hallway with the following message:

“Do anything stupid tonight and this is your future.”

Another idea we had was to gather all the hairspray, mouthwash and gum from our hotel rooms, go sit in the bathroom and pretend to be bathroom attendants, shelling out unsolicited advice to the teen girls about the evening.

Prom Idea

Frustrated but not defeated, I walked inside to use the restroom. To my right was the ballroom where all the kids were on the dance floor and Gettin’ jiggy wit’it was blaring from the speakers. To the left, were 2 teachers sitting at a table that held a jar for kids to cast their ballots for Prom Queen, King and court. Behind the teachers was a backdrop where everyone took their prom pictures for the night. But the one thing I zeroed in on was the table behind the backdrop. Laid out somewhat ceremoniously, was the Prom Queen, King and Court sashes.

I raced to the restroom, then ran back onto our side of the courtyard. I put my finger up to my mouth to motion to be quiet to my friends and motioned for them to follow me. They looked confused but followed regardless.

Inside, I politely asked if we could all take a picture in front of the backdrop. You know, the cheesy pics one normally has to take at a prom. Here is what we came up with:

Prom Queen

With liquid courage, I approached who seemed to be the coolest teacher of the group and proceeded to ask the following:

“Look, if we promise to keep our wines away from the sashes, can we please put them on and take pictures? I promise nothing will happen to them.”

She looked at me funny then approached the senior teachers at the ballot table.

“Is this ok? They want to put the sashes on and take pictures.”

“We promise nothing will happen to the sashes.” I called over her shoulder. The older of the two women looked me up and down and surprisingly agreed. I fist pumped the air I was so excited.

I walked over to the table that held the sashes and gingerly picked up PROM COURT and placed it over my head. After all, I didn’t want to presume I’d be queen.

“No,” cool teacher said and took the sash off me and returned it to the table. She then picked up PROM QUEEN. “You get to be prom queen,” she said proudly as she put it over my head and onto my shoulder.

“Oh my God!” I said completely giddy. Annie slipped on PROM KING. And with that, we took several pictures. Here is the one that made the cut for this post:

Kicked Out

Being the newest members of the prom court, Annie and I only found it fitting to celebrate with a dance on the dance floor. Luckily, we found a service area to the ballroom that was just 8′ from the dance floor. We tip-toed in, walked through the door and got just 5′ from the dance floor when we were immediately shewed away by one of the teachers.

All in all you guys, it was an amazing night. Sure, we didn’t get to enjoy our fire but when life hands you lemons, all you can do is make lemonade.

xoxo,

Queen Hot Mess