Homecoming

It was a year ago this weekend that Julie went to her first homecoming dance as a high school student. She was wearing a very pretty dress and was excited about her very first high school dance. How would I have known the transformation that homecoming dances have taken since I was in high school?

I don't think that Julie was totally traumatized last year but she was painfully aware that all of the girls were wearing formal dresses and she was not. When did Homecoming become a formal event??? I don't know. But at that moment Julie had made a vow to 1)save up money for homecoming and 2) buy THE perfect dress and have THE perfect hair, makeup, nails, and accessories for the evening. And so she started simply. She saved her birthday money. She saved her chore money. She saved the money that grandpa secretly passed to her. And so months before the big event she had the money to buy THE perfect dress.

Then came the second part of the adveture...the hunt for THE perfect dress. She spent many many hours online looking at dresses from Norstroms, to Macy's, to online stores. She felt that the dresses were to simple. As the big event neared, her chauffer (yup...that's me) took her to a couple of places. We first went to a vintage store because she saw a vintage style dress that she liked. The vintage store was interesting but it was all used dresses and all the dresses were rather long. Julie wanted a new dress, short and spunky, that was not too simple and within her price range. Then Julie wanted to try some of the quinceanera dress shops that we had seen in Minneapolis. While the shopping trip was an interesting cultural experience, it resulted in not finding THE perfect dress. In fact, so far she had only tried on one dress. I was starting to feel worried. The next day, the chauffer offered to take Julie to the Mall of America. This was now our third effort and it was getting more and more challenging to keep Helena in line as we looks for THE perfect dress. We went to Nordstrom's Rack and then Nordstroms. Again, Julie still couldn't find THE perfect dress and Helena was getting cranky. So we decided to split up.

Julie continued her quest and Helena and I went to the arcade. As soon as we hit the arcade, Helena perked up immediately. She played all kinds of games and even hit the ticket jackpot twice. We won over 300 tickets which allowed her to get a wonderful Dora Brush set. Meanwhile Julie was checking in via cell phone and was still looking for a dress. Helena did my hair with her new Dora Brush set and we drank some pop. I told Julie she had limited time. Then we made one last stop at Jessica McClintock. Apparently Julie knew about this shop but didn't want to spend the money. So with time running out, she finally made the leap and found THE perfect dress.

On top of all this preparation for the dress, she also spent many months researching how to put in hair extensions. In the past Julie has purchased hair and then spent many days braiding it into her existing hair. It looks really good but takes forever to put it in and it doesn't last too long. Well she found a different way where the hair is glued in strips to the existing hair. Yes I said glue! So she bought the necessary products a little at a time and had everything she needed before the big night. She also purchased fake nails and nail polish for her toes. I was really worried about the hair because Julie had never tried this before. What would happen if she glued the hair on and it looked horrible? Well fortunately she did a great job. I couldn't believe how real it looked. I would almost be tempted to try it myself except that my hair is already long and too thick. I definitely don't need any more hair.

So these photos are the result of a year of saving, planning, and searching. Truly the photos do not do her justice. They were taken with my cell phone and the lighting wasn't very good. Julie looked stunning!

So the question is...what it worth it? Was it worth all the time and money and effort that she put into it? Well who knows. She seemed really happy last night and she said she had a good time. I think only time will tell if she looks back on Homecoming 2008 and say, "I can't believe I spent so much effort on that" or "I would do again in a heartbeat!"

It is just one more experience that makes me so glad that my high school days are long behind me. Amen!