Super Prom 99
Date
July 10, 1999
Theme
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap - ACDC
King and Queen
Mike and Sue Berry
List of attendees
Special Surprise Guests
Meredith
Adam Jones
Supromlatives
| Best Dive | | Matt Morgan |
| Stomp Rocket | | Jim Miceli |
| Farthest Distance Traveled | | Leah Tracosas |
| Best Farmer's Tan | | Dave Carpenter |
| Best Dressed | | Leah Tracosas |
| Fattest | | Matt Morgan |
| Mr. Super Prom | | Greg Storms |
| Miss Super Prom | | Christi |
| Chicken Limbo | | Ashleigh D'Antonio |
| Best Kiss | | Matt Berry and Heather Bredeman |
Acknowledgments
| Tickets | | Dave Carpenter, Matt Berry, Greg Storms, Shawn Meehan, Ashleigh D'Antonio |
| Trampoline Transportation | | Dave Carpenter, Shawn Meehan, Dan Preslar, Bill Beschorner, Ashleigh D'Antonio |
| Catering | | Sue Berry |
| Pre-Prom Set-up | | Dave Carpenter, Shawn Meehan, Greg Storms, Dan Preslar, Matt Berry, Heather Bredeman, Bill Beschorner, Melanie Korber |
| Music | | Greg Storms |
| Photography | | Ashligh D'Antonio, Mike Berry |
| Cigarettes | | Shawn Meehan |
| Beer | | Matt Berry, Mike Berry |
| Cooking | | Mike Berry |
| Beer restocking | | Kristi Coburn, Nate |
Homo - Dog Sex
Sam - Charlie
Pictures!
Write-ups
Mine
Greg's
Dave's
Write your own
My write-up
Where to begin? Super Prom 99 planning started in November. A
planning meeting was held the day after Thanksgiving, really only
because I was curious to see how many people had Super Prom fever
strong enough to go to a meeting that early. Thirteen. The main
thing we got out of that meeting was the word Supromlatives. And that
we would be giving them away at SP 99. In other words, more work for
the Committee. Yai!
Next we'll jump to February, when the date of Super Prom was
picked. I sent out an e-mail asking people when they thought Super
Prom should be, really only because I was curious to see how many
people had Super Prom fever strong enough to care when Super Prom was
that early. I got a lot of responses, the only one worth quoting was
from Grant, who said "Whenever is fine with me, why don't you go fuck
yourself?".
Then came Theme Choosing Gala. I wanted to go back to the way
things were in 97, so I made a tape with all the theme choices. The
idea being that we'd all get together, listen to the tape, and fill
out our ballots. The problem being that this was April, and we were
spread across the country. So I held a Gala in the woods with the
Tech kids, and sent some other tapes out across the country. The idea
being that eventually everyone would hear the tape and mail me their
ballots, and I would tally the votes, and pick a theme. This failed
for several key reasons:
- Not everyone got the tape. I would even go as far to say
that most people didn't get the tape.
- My friends have widely different tastes in music. "You Get
What You Give", the popular New Radicals song, received the most
votes for it. However, it also received a vote that said "I
will bomb Super Prom if this song is theme." For safety
reasons, a different song had to be picked.
- I was going to pick a theme based on my interpretation of
the ballots. To me it seemed like "Laid" was the song that
would make the most people the happiest, without really
upsetting anyone. But, Heather and Jim were very upset about
that, because I didn't have a "system" for counting the votes.
So a "system" was defined, assigning number values to each
category. The song that got the most points would win.
- "Got My Mind Set on You" won according to the "system". I
don't really like that song, and I knew there was a better song
out there. So the search continued. At this point I decided
that I hated all of the songs on the tape, probably because I
had listened to it so many times. So I re-opened up the search
to all songs.
- We needed a theme before we could start making tickets, and
time was running out. So the Committee pulled a massive
brainstorming session, and came up with "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt
Cheap". I figured I could pull it off if I wrote a funny
paragraph in the invitation letter
about the theme. But I still wasn't happy. Secretly I thought
about changing the theme at the last minute at Super Prom, in a
surprise double-twist. I was really just using "Dirty Deeds" as
a place holder, a dirty deed in itself, after the dirty deed of
picking that song even though it wasn't on the ballot.
- During Super Prom I still wasn't sure what I was going to
do. I still wanted to have "Laid" be theme. I told Greg when
the time came to play the theme, I would go over there and do
it. But Greg pulled a surprise coup, and after the King and
Queen were crowned, he started "Dirty Deeds". A dirty deed of
his own, creating in all a triple twist ending.
Anyway, once we decided on a theme, we started the ticket making
process. Tickets were Trivial Pursuit cards, with a Super Prom
question, a People question, an Entertainment question, and a fourth
random question that may or may not have had any significance to the
person who got it. Four questions per card, by 53 invitees, meant 212
questions we had to come up with. That was a long and painful
process, at the end of which our brains hurt. But it was all worth it
once the things were all finished and laminated. Next I wrote the
usual invitation letter everyone loves.
Then the committee held a signing party, where we signed the letters
and packed them into the envelopes. Note that we also spent lots of
time tracking down everyone's address, which is not as easy as you
might think. Then late that night I dropped them off in the local
mailbox. Outside of Super Prom itself, the moment that I drop the
tickets in the mailbox is my favorite of the year.
The next four weeks were spent preparing for Super Prom. We had to
decide on the format of the Supromlatives, buy the awards, paint the
awards gold, make certificates, and the like. And I spent a good bit
of time tracking people down to see if they were going. But I tire of
writing of this, lets jump to July the 10th.
Super Prom set-up
I woke up on Saturday, shortly before 11:00, to the sound of rain.
I went downstairs to investigate the source of this sound, only to
find out that it was raining. I had known for a few days that rain
was expected, and I had been quite concerned that it might rain during
Super Prom, a situation that we weren't prepared for. I didn't think
the rain would last, and I taunted it, shaking my fist at sky and
declaring that it couldn't stop Super Prom, nothing can.
Change the background color if you want (I've decided to start
playing with Javascripts).
It was now about four and a half hours till Super Prom, and there
was no beer, no cigarettes, no food, no pool stuff, no trampoline, and
the backyard was full of poop. And it was raining. But don't panic
yet, there's still plenty of time. Step one, call Shawn, and tell him
to take care of the smokes. Get Dave to start the trampoline
transport, and get together all of the other stuff at his house, while
me and Pop go get the beer. A bit of a problem with getting beer.
Unbeknownst to me, Jacksonville isn't stockpiled full of kegs like
Blacksburg is. Apparently, you're supposed to order them in advance,
a concept I'm unfamiliar with. So we had to go out pretty far to get
kegs. We got two, Bud, and Bud Light. I contemplated getting more
beer, since I didn't think they would last, but my Dad, perhaps a bit
wary of the amount of drinking that would be occurring at his house,
vetoed that idea.
It was still raining, so we decided to stop by Hechingers and get a
tarp. Umbrella stands were needed as well. Then my Dad and I hopped
in the van and went back to the house. I called Dave on my Dad's cell
phone on the way back, to verify that my Dad has a really bad cell
phone. Shawn was waiting for me in the gazebo when I got back, with
two cartons of cigarettes. It was now about three hours till Super
Prom, we had no food, no trampoline, no pool islands, and the backyard
was still full of poop. And it might start raining again at any
moment. And one more thing: the World Cup Finals were starting at
3:30, a half hour before Super Prom, so that's when a lot of people
were showing up, since I told them that the game would be broadcast in
the Gazebo. This meant that most things had to be ready a half hour
early.
So Suzie went out to get the burgers and other food, Dad started
setting up the tarp, I started picking up poop, and Shawn was put to
work cleaning up the deck. At this time Heather Bredeman showed up,
so she helped my Pop. We put a call in to Dave to get the trampoline
down, and to Greg, Dan, and Melanie for more help. Everything was
going great. Dave got the rock fountain into the pool and we tested
it out, we put a little towel over it to hide it. It was going to be
the big surprise once Super Prom began. We posted the rules of Super Prom on the Gazebo, as well
as a schedule of events that I knew we would never follow, but with
all the new activities because of the Supromlatives, we needed an idea
of when to do them. We also put up the usual "close the gate
moron" signs. We got the TV into the gazebo for the game, the
islands (Fun and Fantasy) were blown up, Greg was getting the music in
order, nothing could go wrong. The clouds had even gone away, leaving
a nice warm sunny day. Months of planning were all coming together.
And I wasn't even freaking out yet.
About 40 minutes till SP, the major preparations were complete, so
I changed into my Super Prom outfit, my bathing suit and the Crow
T-shirt. That's when people got there for the game. Matt Morgan,
Trevor, Grant, JP, Dave, Sarah, that's probably all. They got
situated in the Gazebo, I started getting food out, and I put the
cigarettes in a big basket. Now everything was looking good, but it
now about 10 minutes till Super Prom, and I was starting to freak out.
Just a little, everything looked good. Greg had “Lust For Life”, the
kick-off song, ready to play, and I was ready to do my dive, and Dave
was going to start the fountain right at 4:00. But about 3 minutes
till I looked around for Dave, and he was nowhere to be found. This
is when I freaked out. I remember it like this:
Me shouting: "Where's Dave?"
Someone says: "I think he's in the basement."
I take off to the basement.
Someone yelling at me: "Don't run around the pool"
Girl whispers: "He needs to calm down"
I say: "I'm fine."
Thud
Crash
Me: "Owww! - Dave!"
Well, it turns out that Dave wasn't in the basement, but my head
ended up with a nice big red mark. Dave then shows up, he was in the
front yard, and now, with a minute to go, everything was ready. I got
on the diving board, Heather got ready to pour beer, Dave was ready to
turn on the fountain, and Greg had the music under control. We
started the countdown, and when we got to zero, Super Prom began.
Super Prom
The kick off to Super Prom was the best ever. I did a sailor's dive
into the pool, and took the towel off the rock fountain to start it
up. The rock fountain was a big hit. It must of been spraying at
least 15 feet into the air, very impressive. I got out of the pool,
"Lust For Life" was playing, I was happy. People were drinking beer
and watching
the World Cup game, they were happy.
But here's a problem. With all of the Supromlatives, we had a
pretty busy schedule, with the first contest, diving, scheduled for
4:45. But those silly girls wouldn't finish their game. When I told
people they could watch the game at Super Prom, I figured that it
would be in the background, with most people's attention on Super Prom
itself. No. There was no way that anything was going to happen until
the game ended. And it wasn't ending. Two over-times later, it still
wasn't over. I was a bit annoyed. But then finally we won in the
shoot-off, and everyone cheered, and I took the TV out of the Gazebo,
and Super Prom could now really begin, two hours late.
Now the diving contest. Taylor,
Shawn, and Kathy were the judges, we told them to rate each dive
on a scale of 6 to 10. So I went first, with a dive to the shallow
end, where I did a handstand. I go for distance when I dive, because
that's all you can really do on my diving board. But those losers
only gave me a 7. So we'll have new judges next year. I don't
remember everyone who was in it, but Jody did a nice back dive, and
Brad pretty much just jumped
in the pool. Grant
and Greg
pretty much did standard dives. Matt Morgan did a back
flip for 9.7 points. Jim was up last, and did the most impressive
belly
flop I've ever seen. He also got 9.7. So then there was a second
round. Matt Morgan went first, and did a back-flip-into-a-belly-flop.
A dive no one before has ever attempted or even dreamed possible. So
he won. I don't think Jim even tried to beat that.
So next was the Stomp Rocket contest. There was a pretty long line
of people who were trying it. Which I thought was good, because at
SP98, two people used the thing. We made a rule that it had to be
inside the fence to count, and Dave and Greg were out in the yard to
see where each one landed. Farthest one won. I went first, to
demonstrate how to use the thing. I carefully checked to make sure
the tube was clear, jumped onto the pad, and pushed down with all my
might, using all of my years of Stomp Rocket experience. The rocket
went 10 feet. This caused a lot of laughter, and me to almost start
crying. I ran to retrieve my rocket, amid everyone's humiliating
comments, and when I picked up the rocket I discovered the problem.
It was cracked, thus preventing it from getting the full impact of the
stomp. So then I went again with another rocket, and I showed those
kids what I'm made of. It went out pretty far, but not far enough to
win. Shawn got one just inside the fence on the Millard's side, and
Jim got one just inside the fence behind the wood shed. Melanie
almost won automatically by hitting Bill, who was on the trampoline at
the time, she missed by only a foot or so. But instead I had to pace
it out to see who was farther. Jim won by few paces, obviously no one
is a match for his fat when it comes to stomping.
We had a fat contest, that was pretty funny. Emma, Keo, and
Heather were the judges for that one. Jim, Matt Morgan, Grant, and I
participated. They had us wiggle
and shake our fat around. Matt
Morgan won.
What else. I lit the grill the with gasoline this year, which was fun.
My Pop actually did the grilling, as I was busy Super Proming.
(And I think I was getting a bit tipsy by this time). The Slip N
Slide made another appearance. I went down it, and so did Emma. No
one else. Don't expect to see it again. Shawn fell off the
trampoline and ruined
himself. He got X-rays the next day and nothing was broken, just
"severe tissue damage" from which he has still not recovered. There
were two islands in the pool this year, Fun and Fantasy, which made
things very exciting. There were actually some island wars. The
fountain was also used to spray people, which made me a little nervous
because the water was spraying out of the pool.
Keep in mind that during the entire event, there was a Chicken
atop the gazebo, looking over everything.
I'll jump to the awards ceremony now, because I don't remember
anything else significant until then. The Diving award went to Matt
Morgan. He got a certificate that said "For excellence in the
field of diving into a Baquacil pool.....". Jim got the Stomp Rocket
award, consisting of a gold stomp
rocket, and a certificate. The Best Farmer's tan to Dave,
since he thought of having the award so he could win. He got a gold straw hat, and a certificate. Leah
got the farthest distance traveled award. She came from Detroit.
There was some confusion on my part about that award, because I didn't
know if it should be farthest or furthest. I still don't know.
Anyway, she got a certificate and a BMW. Leah also got the best
dressed award, which was chosen by a panel of judges consisting of
Kristi, Emily, and Ashleigh. I think. So she got another
certificate, as well as a gold
clip-on tie. Shawn got the Trampoling award because he was the only
one to sustain a trampoline
injury. Then came the fat prize. Matt Morgan won, and he was
awarded a tiny T-shirt (boys 8-11), with gold lettering that said "Super Prom 99 Fattest".
He
put it on, and we laughed at him.
So then it was time to crown the King and Queen. This year people
voted on King and Queen, which was new. It worked out pretty well,
but there weren't a lot of good couples to choose from. My date left
early, so I couldn't make everyone vote for me. A lot of people ended
up voting for my parents, because my parents are so cool. In fact,
more people voted for them then any other couple. And so they won.
Dave and Ashleigh made the crowns again this year, this time without
using naked dolls. They were very nice. My
parents put them on, and then did not do the traditional jump into
the pool after being crowned. Since they can stop Super Prom at any
moment, they were excused. Instead, my Dad made a speech about how he
likes my friends the best out of all of his children.
Drinking and craziness continued after that. Oh, the kegs did run
out, so Kristi and Nate had to run out to Bradley's to re-stock. I
gave them just about all of the money we had collected so far. But
Bradley's was closed, so they ended up having to go up to Hess road.
Nonetheless, they eventually returned with 8 cases of Coors Lite. Yes
Coors Lite, the official beer of 35 year olds. Apparently there was a
special.
So there were three contests that still had to be held. The
Mr./Miss Super Prom contest, the Best Kiss contest, and most
importantly, the Chicken Limbo contest. And it was starting to get
late now, and of course my mother was growing concerned about the
noise. We had planned on the original schedule to be done at 11:00,
but remember that the soccer game screwed everything up. So now even
though I know my Mom is worried about the noise, I decide to start the
Mr. Super Prom contest. Problem 1: No one has any idea how to judge
the contest. Originally, it was supposed to be sort of a best body
contest, but none of the guys have good looking bodies. So that's not
gonna work. So instead one by one we just danced for everyone.
Whoever got the most applause was going to win. We had all gone, when
suddenly the Brit comes out from the house. People tell him to dance,
he sits down. Then someone else was about to start when my parents
come out, and wave me over. I think they are concerned about the
noise, so I tell them to just wait a minute. They insist I come over
now. I do. What's wrong? Come in and look at this. Ok. Vomit all
over the bathroom. On the toilet, the floor, even the walls. It was
impressive. Naturally my mom was freaking out. This in turn made me
freak out. I started cleaning, Taylor and Lisa helped. My Dad went
out to see who did it. Greg came in to see what was wrong. Super
Prom's over I said. This is what my mom had said to me. Greg left.
I continued to clean up. My mom settled down. We discover that it
was the Brit who puked. Emma and Shawn took him away. I went back
out, and after my Dad assured me that everything was ok again, and
that my Mom wasn't mad at me, Super Prom continued. Puking Brits
can't stop Super Prom!
So then things started to wind down a little. I guess at that
point we had to turn the music down some. Anyway, I had to award the
Mr. Super Prom prize to someone, so I gave it to Greg. He seemed to
deserve it the most from my point of view. So then came the question
of what to do about the Miss Super Prom award. I asked the girls if
they wanted to do it, and no one seemed to be really excited about it.
Only two girls wanted to compete, Leah's friend Christi, and Melanie.
At this point I would like to point out how hot Melanie was. At one
point earlier in the night, I saw Melanie alone in the pool. The next
thing I knew, I was in the pool too, although I had no desire to be in
the water at all. The cold water sobered me up a bit, and I said to
myself, "You're not getting her, get out of the pool you drunk fool."
And I know I'm not alone in my feelings about this. So naturally my
first instinct was to just give the award to Melanie. But I thought
that this might cause trouble, and Jim's earlier complaint about not
having a system came to mind. I needed some basis to give the award
on. So I told them to thumb wrestle for it. Christi won. Oh well.
So now it was very late (actually I have no idea what time it was,
since I don't wear my watch during Super Prom), and we still had two
contests to go. The next on the schedule was the kissing contest.
The kissing contest was one of the greatest inventions I've ever had.
A contest where someone has to kiss me. But, I had a problem. I had
no idea who I was going to enter with. But later when I was sitting
in the Gazebo Heather came in and sat on my lap. This caused an idea
to pop up in my head. (And since I had been drinking for 7 hours,
that was the only thing that popped up). I asked her if she wanted to
enter the kissing contest with me, and in an extreme moment of
weakness she'll probably regret for the rest of her life, she agreed.
So there were three couples, us, Bill and Lisa, and Kathy and Emily.
Heather and I had a short kiss, that ended with us falling onto
Fantasy Island. I wasn't paying any attention to the others, I kissed
Heather. So we won.
Finally, the Chicken
Limbo contest. This occurred at about 1 am, two hours late. The
soccer game took 2 hours. Since Chicken Limbo involves lots of
yelling and screaming, I was concerned about my parents reaction. But
it went ok. Everyone participated just about, which was really cool.
It came down to Ashleigh and Heather. They were doing really well.
We actually had to lower the chicken a bit, even though it starts
about 2.5 feet off the ground. Ashleigh beat Heather, after Heather
got an unfortunate Limbo spin late in the game. I of course was out
after the first round, because that chicken hates me. One day I'm
going to grab that little plastic chicken, and when it starts
squawking at me I'm going to kick its ass!
So then things really started to wind down. We did do the Safety
Dance around the pool, at Kathy Mascardo's request. People started to
either go home, pass out in the basement, or go to tent city in the
backyard. Eventually Trevor, Matt Morgan and I were on the trampoline
talking, and the only other people left were Jim, Grant, and Heather
in the Gazebo. We heard them say something about there not being any
beer left. We went up to investigate, and they were gone. I
continued drinking the beer I had, when I noticed that Matt had a new
one. I asked him if had a secret stash, and he did. Then I
remembered my secret stash of Bud Light left over from Dave's Dance
Party the weekend before, and I retrieved that. So there was plenty
of beer. Then Kristen returned from somewhere, so there were four of
us. Bob was there as well, so five really. So we continued to drink
and smoke until it started to get light out. I think Matt and Trevor
played "I did it all for the Nookie" about 12 million times. I was a
bit too drunk to be paying attention. Once it was light out Matt and
Trevor decided to go get some breakfast. Thus leaving Kristen, me,
and Bob. Kristen decided to go home, because there was really nothing
left to do, I pulled the Gazebo lights, and Super Prom was over.
I woke up the next morning, and I started cleaning up. This was a
two day project, during which I thought about planning next year's
Super Prom sometime later.
Greg's write-up
matt:
i am sitting here, back at college. i've been here for about twelve
hours, and i am officially bored. so far i cannot find melanie for lack
of knowing where she lives or her phone number, and the same can be said
about meredith. so i figure: what better time to write my super prom 99
experience?
for me, super prom 99 started at about eight o'clock on the morning of
friday the ninth. i had attempted previously to get it to start at eight
o'clock in the morning on the previous friday, but a rather poopy
(albeit four-day) workweek prevented me from stretching the two weekends
to feel like they were one. so, thursday night i was excited/stressed as
i took my nightly nap from one to three AM. i got up, went to work, and
at about eight was feeling good. there was much to be done, but it all
had to do with super prom. except for the silly UPS meeting about how
things were going there and why everyone in the room who was in charge
of anything was probably going to get fired in a week or two (and did).
that done, and some chicken-and-mustard sandwiches in my stomach, i went
home. at some point, possibly not before noon, i got ahold of matt, who
had taken off from work in his undying dedication to us all having fun,
and told him of my plans. they were to go to dave mcnell's house in
order to tape mp3's from his computer for a sp99 mix tape. in typical
matt fashion, by the time i went to the bank (getting tons of
unnecessary cash), bought blank tapes, and went to dave's house, matt
was already waiting there. which was unfortunate, given the ongoing
power struggle between matt and i on the subject of super prom djing. i
told him i would make the tape as if he were not there, and as if to
answer, matt disappeared for a while. in the meantime, it had gotten
exceedingly late, and i had to motor if dave and i were going to be on
time to pick up melanie from the bus station downtown, as she was coming
in from new york. we jetted from dave's house to pick up kristen from
work, then cruised down york rd to see if we could catch shawn at work
to tell him to sell dave's damn phish ticket that night and make a
profit or else heads would roll. shawn was not there. so downtown we
went. seeing melanie for the first time since school ended was
excitement enough, even without super prom. i was elated during the
entire drive home, trying to be a non-ithaca form of myself for
melanie's enjoyment. navigator dave successfully got us
lost-but-not-lost-just-not-able-to-find-83 in downtown baltimore, and
the heat was killing all of us. kristen sat silently in the backseat of
my Golf, suffering silently as dave and i bantered in classic shawankie
and gerg form and took melanie's questions and comments in stride.
eventually, we made it out of the artscape-confused city, and to 83
again. we were just on the timonium stretch, when i looked out my
window.
"hey, there's matt and leah."
matt, picking up leah from the airport, was driving unsuspectingly
alongside us. leah, probably zoe-like with excitement and not able to
contain herself after being surprised by my Golf's suddenly being next
to her, gestured wildly and tried to do a lot of things at once.
i gave them the finger.
when we got to the warren rd. light, we rolled down our widows to
communicate. i asked matt if we could get liquids at his house to save
ourselves from the oppressive heat. confirmed.
"chinese fire drill!" i yelled. i was really happy. no one did it. i was
really happy, anyway.
we got to matt's house at about six? maybe. and stood around in his
kitchen shooting the squat for a while about things. i realized and
verbalized that i had not slept in over twenty-four hours, and that
sleep would not be coming anytime soon. melanie met those who were
there, and requested immediate delivery to my house for showering. so i
took kristen home, leaving dave there to get a ride with someone else,
and melanie and i went back to my house. i gave her the tour of the area
on the way back. while she showered, i talked to meredith on the phone,
giving her directions to my house and matt's so she could get to super
prom the next day. melanie refused to do anything to keep busy despite
my pointing out multiple times that i had left a lot of film books in my
brother's room, and that she could read those. so i got off the phone.
we went to maberry's house to kill some time while the gang was at the
bel-loc diner and set up some. matt met melanie, and when a crowd
started arriving at matt's, we made them all leave and go to my house.
as we got there, dan was just arriving. good timing. in my excitement, i
had not looked at my watch in a while, not knowing that dan's arrival
was imminent.
somehow, eventually, people got to my house that night. lots of them. so
i put out an ashtray and a bunch of candles, did my best to introduce
melanie to everyone, played host, and did my best to fight off
deliriousness from lack of sleep. i think i played guitar for leah and
henry (ooh! henry was there!) and whomever else listened, but that could
be my imagination. at some point, melanie said she was tired and went to
bed. i saw the bathroom light turn on, and the one in brian's room, as
well, upstairs, and quickly bounded upstairs. i leaned my head in the
cracked door.
"the, um, light up here is, uh, such that...you are very easily visible
from the deck," i said. melanie was in no state of undress, so i felt
somewhat foolish warning her. she smiled, said thanks, and i went on my
way. i kept an eye on the light in brians's room for a while after that,
wondering why melanie would stay up and read while there were still
social possibilities downstairs. especially after demonstrating such a
lack of interest in my film-literature library.
i finally kicked the stragglers out during my thirty-second hour of
waking, and set dan up in my room, a sleeping bag on the floor for me. i
peeked into melanie's room to see if the light meant she was still up,
but at seeing her curled smally up under the covers, eyes closed, i
scampered to the light next to her, and turned it off. (later, melanie,
would explain, "i always sleep with the light on...")
Aenema is over now, matt, and i will have to finish this tomorrow. tune
in! for when super prom happens!
greg
matt:
egged on by the continuing hilarity and inaccuracy (i tried slip n
slide, only went halfway down, and then tried again, if i remember
correctly. plus, joe cuddled with some girl on slip n slide later in the
day, if you consider that using it) of your write-up, i am finally
getting back to mine. let me see where i left off...
oh, i haven't even started the day yet. so:
me and dan and melanie woke up. more specifically, dan woke up, started
reading something from the room like he always does, eventually alerting
my dan-is-up-and-reading sense, then i woke up. then we ate stuff that
my mom cooked for us. it was most likely very good and full of meat and
eggs and bready things. i called matt to tell him our situation and
wonder when to come over and start setting up super prom. i think matt
was gone with his dad, buying things. which reminds me:
it had been raining. things were wet, and dark, and not as hot as they
might have been. this was distressing, but i was confident that nothing
could ruin super prom. especially not rain. after all, it had rained at
super prom before. hard, even. that was what the gazebo was for. all of
these things i told my mother while dan wolfed down more and more of our
food to feed his massive frame.
eventually, melanie woke up. i think, at that point, we decided to
shower. melanie was alerted to the presence of my fancy shampoos and
conditioners, which meant that i couldn't take them and shower
elsewhere.
ok, i got sidetracked by schoolwork for a half a day or so there.
at some point we went to matt's with all of my music and pretty much
nothing else. ashleigh and dave were there, or soon were, delivering the
trampoline. heather was there, as well, helping sir mike set up the
largest tarp that i have ever seen in my entire life. i think shawn was
there, too, trying not to ruin super prom. i immediately took charge of
getting absolutely nothing done, which basically consisted of holding a
pen and looking at matt's to-do list. eventually i started doing the
things on the list, like getting all of the things we needed out of the
closet, and throwing them in the pool. i think somewhere in there i
cleaned out the insides of the coolers.
most importantly, i put the chicken on top of the gazebo, fixing it in a
menacing position that i would regret every time i looked at it for the
rest of the day. scary.
with about a half an hour to go before super prom, i decided that it was
time to go back to my house to get things that i would actually need at
super prom, like a bathing suit and towels and all that jazz. ashleigh
needed to get things from dave's house, and since some of them were
cd's, i (as dj), went along with her, making it a joint venture. we went
to dave's and picked all the essential cd's he had, and jetted over to
my house. there, i quickly got my supplies, and ashleigh talked to my
dad about taking chairs from my house. at this point, it might be noted,
we had all worked ourselves into such a frenzy that everything we did we
felt we had to do as fast as possible. so i was running around my house,
picking up random things, deciding whether or not they made matt's
backyard a better place, and running again. ashleigh and i swiftly got a
stack of chairs from the back deck, and put them in the back of the car.
we got back to matt's backyard, where the world cup fans had begun to
gather, and i started to organize the music. soon, it had to be decided
what was going to be the kickoff song for super prom 99.
this is where matt's version differs a bit from mine. matt, in his
extreme pre-super prom frenzy, was, to all those who had not spent the
previous eight months planning with him, acting in a completely insane
way.
[it should be noted here that matt's peak of freaking out was at this
point, because, as is little known, as soon as super prom starts, matt
(in comparison to the rest of the year) stops, leaving, for some reason,
me to handle super prom. this year it was contemplated that i wear a
shirt with my name on it so that everyone who matt tells to ask me
things who didn't know me would be able to find me to ask me all of the
things that a drunken and super proming matt would not care to.]
so there were about three minutes to super prom 99, and matt freaked
out. i was sitting on bench by the music, ready to press play, and
melanie was sitting next to me. matt started to run away from his post
at the diving board to find dave (in the basement, apparently. it is
possible that i even told him that was where dave was hiding). then
things went like this:
matt shouting: "Where's Dave?!?"
me: "I think he's in the basement."
Matt runs to the basement.
Someone yells at matt not to run around the pool.
Melanie says to me (quietly, out of hearing distance of matt, it should
be noted): "He needs to calm down."
me: "no, it's very close to time for super prom, this behavior is
normal."
melanie gives me a doubtful look.
Matt: "OWw!...Dave!"
at least, that's how i remember it.
we kicked off super prom, starting "Lust For Life," Matt doing a sailor
dive into the pool, and dave starting the rock fountain. Super Prom, to
the extent that it existed outside of the World Cup obsessed gazebo,
began.
I let the Iggy Pop album play itself out, kicking around talking to
melanie and others who arrived, killing time until i either got in the
pool or something came up, and worried about the amount of time and
energy that was being taken up by the tv in the gazebo. around this
point, i made the traditional yearly invitations by phone to harvey
hopkins (who later returned the call but was unable to attend) and amy
mccrone (where there was no answer) i was a bit of a chore climbing
around the outside of the gazebo behind the tv to get to the phone, but
sacrifices are always made in the name of super prom.
eventually i got in the pool and decided that my favorite thing to do
was try to stand on the fun and sun islands. in attempt to attract as
much attention to myself and how much fun the pool could be as possible,
i even stacked one on top of the other, and stood on that. i was not,
however, as exciting as the women's world cup team. some people got in
the pool though, and threw things at me until i fell off of my perch.
this was unnecessary, since i fell off immediately, anyway.
i watched matt occasionally when the music lulled, to see if he
remembered that he had given me hand signals to dj by. he never really
used them.
at some point while i was in the pool, someone told me that meredith was
wandering around the front of the house. "i told her to come back, why
would she not do that?" i murmured to whoever was around me. the thought
of meredith's first non-school impression of me being soaking wet and
shirtless was scaring that crap out of me. i thought quickly, and
decided that i had no options. i wandered around the house. no meredith.
eventually, she came around through a gate, ushered by bill or somebody.
i welcomed her and, in my sudden state of having to worry about how i
was acting around her, promptly forgot to introduce her to anyone for
the rest of the day. i swam a little bit more, then decided to attack
matt on the problem of supromlatives.
we decided to move things back a bit. then, we decided to move them back
more. in the meantime, i played stomp rockets with dave mcnell, and
helped set up the slip n slide, then played on that too.
matt, i'm sending this to you now so that you are updated. hopefully i
will finish it sometime in the next few days.
greg
okay, it has been a loong time, and the my super prom memory is
dwindling, but i am going to try to finish this, for better or for worse. the new pictures on the webpage will help me.
from talking to melanie tonight, i have decided that the remainder
of the day was divided pretty much half into keeping things running,
having the events go off as planned (or half-planned, as it were)
and so on, and half into spending time with meredith:
- because i was quite interested in her despite having only
hung out with her for less hours than i can count on my hands
and therefore wanted to spend as much time as possible with
her, and
- because she didn't know anyone and if i left her alone she
would
look like this.
so most of the rest of the night was spent doing one or the
other.
somewhere around here, melanie had realized it was time to fend
for herself and "rubbed elbows," as she put it, with everyone.
it was about time for the diving contest. i stayed back near
my post at the picnic table opposite the gazebo, fueling matt's parents'
boombox with music and playing it as loud as possible without
making it go all fuzzy. this was not very loud, and proved to be a
constant source of annoyance for me throughout the day. matt stood
on the diving board, and announced that the diving contest was
to begin. the judges lined up on the side of the pool.
[it should be noted here a random memory: at some point, maybe
this, matt stood on the diving board, needing exciting music.
jim said something to the effect of putting on something that matt
would want. i was already on my way to the tape box where i found
what i was looking for. i said out loud that matt would be very
pleased with me if he would be patient for a second. i put in
archers of loaf's "wrong," blared it. matt said "yes!" which he
always says when that song starts, and we were all happy.]
matt kicked off the contest with a dive where he did something
underwater. i was still hovering around my music, a little bit wary
of all the people who would obviously do better dives than me and
nervous under what i thought to be meredith's watching me. brad
and maybe some others went, and i figured i should do mine before
people started doing things i couldn't top. i took off my shirt,
revealing my overly hairy and overly skinny torso, and strutted my
original Jams-clad ass onto the diving board. i did as nice a
straight dive as possible on matt's plank of a diving board, and got
out. i don't even remember what i got. i didn't win, though. i
figured on not winning anything, anyway, so that was okay. matt
morgan and jim both did very painful looking dives, resulting in a
tie, and then matt won with his backflip. however, i was much more
impressed with the lobster-red of jim's entire front. i noticed
ashleigh was indisposed/in the pool/or not paying attention, so i
grabbed someone's camera and proceeded over to jim, where he was
celebrating being
drunk, overweight, and proud with matt morgan.
i said i was going to get a shot of his redness, and looked into
the lense. i am used to cameras not having zoom functions, and when
jim's huge red stomach appeared, nay, FILLED the frame, i shouted
out to myself. when i looked up, jim and matt were full of laughter,
and i realized the silliness of what i had just done. it must have
seemed like i was kidding, but i was not. i had been genuinely
scared. anyway i backed up a little bit, and
got the picture.
somewhere in here, a pen became available, and a few of us decided to
draw on our muscles, as is a super prom tradition
(
see ivane chua, circa super prom 97). i have no idea who went
first, but my muscle became "property of UPS enterprises." dave
mcnell's became something similar, i believe. dan became "shit
head." dave carpenter became something, and matt beres, of course,
was "office bitch." we had a
picture taken of our buff selves, and
the day went on. sometime joe must have seen us drawing on ourselves
and found a marker, because at some point he walked up to me and
looked like this.
since matt says the next thing that happened was the stomp rocket
contest, i will get to that next. having already stomp rocketed
myself out with dave mcnell, and knowing my downward momentum and
mass were of no competition with some others there, i just watched
and tried to help out. matt must have said they were moving the kegs
over to that corner of the yard, because for some reason a large
line of people went over there just to be in the stomp rocket
contest. me and dave went to the corner of the yard with the
trampoline, and got ready for matt's blast of the rocket. it never
came, and we laughed at him. in the next few people, we immediately
got some almost unbeatable shots, going into the corner of the yard
but just barely not past the fence. i ran behind the shed to see
if one was in bounds.
confirmed.
when it seemed as if they would all be really good distances, i
got anxious and bored. a lot of people drifted down to our corner
of the yard, and i figured that dave could handle it with them. so
i went away, up the hill to where i socialized a bit with people,
or maybe went for a swim or something.
sooner or later the fat contest started rather abruptly. maybe
this is when i put on archers of loaf, that could work. i turned
around and already kristen and the rest of the fat judges were
lined up, watching the variations of "truffle shuffle" being offered
up hungrily for them. though i was doubled over with laughter most of
the time, i watched as much as possible. guys like matt, jim, and
matt morgan stood on the diving board and shook their stomachs
around vigorously, wanting to win something, anything, for their
mass. things like this make super prom beautiful. eventually,
although i thought jim had more admirable truffle shuffle potential,
matt morgan was named the winner. i couldn't argue. i couldn't wait
for the awards ceremony, having put some nice work into the fabulous
award he would be getting.
i talked to dave some, probably asked him if he was having a
good time or not and the like. super prom never was exactly dave's
favorite thing. he likes to drink though, and eat and throw balls
around the pool, and a host of other things you can do at super
prom. i think it's just the insanity at which matt and dave and i
attack it he doesn't go for. he had to go to work at RGIS and count
things in other people's stores, and wanted to eat. i took a little
bit of a poll to see if it was nearing time where matt would want
to light the grill. soon, he did.
dave was waiting expectantly in the
background with his shawankie hat on. meat, yummy. one of the best
parts of super prom.
sometime during cooking, when i was actually starting to get
hungry, i went over to the grill, near the "life guard stand," where
sir mike had set up all of the super prom cooking materials. i sat
on the step to the garage and had a catch up talk with him. i
approached sir mike a little warily, as i always have since leaving
scouts without getting my eagle. i always felt a bit ashamed at
that, thinking i might have, in a small way, let sir mike down.
maybe my years of eagerness in still thinking he's a fantastic guy
smoothed everything over, because we chatted easily as he played
with the meat. we talked family and i told him about my bro in san
fransisco and all of that. eventually i went into the bathroom as
had been my original intention.
like matt, everything in this part is pretty fuzzy. i don't even
drink, and it is still fuzzy. it is almost october, though, if that
is anything of an excuse. i spent most of the time sitting around,
talking to meredith, attending to the music. there were a few times
when i tried to jump on the trampoline, or went in the pool some
more. i played ballkeep for a while, getting the balls that flew
out of the pool and pegging those who were still in it with them.
easy and mean, but still fun. more and more people were getting
there. ivane's friends from school all showed up, and i may have
even met some of them. leah's friends from school came, too, and
i don't think i met them. i did give jon the go-ahead to put
weezer's "pinkerton" (which he proclaimed as a superb album) on,
but since i had never heard the album, there wasn't much
conversation there. kristen and alicia's dates, tom brown and nat
thompson, got there, and stayed in
the good chairs for awhile with each other. i may have had a brief
conversation with kristen to see if she was having a fine time,
and she was. she looked all nice,
with a flower in her hair and everything.
alas, matt. there is no way i will be able to finish this tonight.
i'm proud of myself for what i have gotten through, though. yes!
go me.
good night, gerg
matt:
this is the rest of what happened at from my perspective at super prom
99 (yes, it is april, but i will finish this write-up even if it means
i
have to take up drinking.):
--we had the rest of the supromlatives. people won.
--somebody puked. i could tell it was the brit, whereas ashleigh and
dave for some reason thought it wasn't.
--you told me "super prom is over!"
--super prom continued.
--tents went up, people slept in them.
--apparently people hooked up or kissed one another, either in the
basement or on the slip-n-slide or other places, most of this is
heresay.
--melanie talked to shawn in the kitchen for a long time about nuclear
disarmament.
--matt beres and i played and sang for meredith and some other people,
very briefly, during which you threw the mr. super prom banner at me.
matt bereswas very drunk.
--i took dan (who continually threatened on the ride home to wake up my
parents yelling about how drunk he was when we got back to my house)
and
melanie back to my house while meredith follwed in her golf.
--i fell asleep on my basement couch.
that's it. finished.
greg
Dave's write-up
No comment.
Corrections, comments, additions, etc.
mail me.
www.superprom.com
