Want to Hang Out With Me Tonight?

Tomorrow I will write about The Very Nearly Perfect Thing That Is Happening Today.

But fear not! I have a number of Totally Excellent things to write about today, including information on hanging out with me at 9 PM (EST) tonight.

Totally Excellent Thing #1: The School Library Journal has a wonderful online teen newsletter that you can subscribe to. The current issue has (ETA) a link to my Hot Summer Twisted/Speak Summer Book Trailer Contest, blog entry with the updated contest rules, as well as other cool things.

Totally Excellent Thing #2: Speaking of SLJ, you’ll want to read their article featuring Sherman Alexie again, in light of the fact that The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for fiction yesterday.

The Biggest and Baddest Totally Most Excellent Thing!
The reading divas and readergirlz at Readergirlz have been talking about my book PROM all month. TONIGHT I will be live-chatting on the Readergirlz Forum from 9-10pm (EST). Here is your chance to ask me everything you’ve been dying to ask, but have felt awkward bringing up here on the blog. Though the focus will be PROM, we’ll be discussing all of my books, and possibly sundry things such as marathon training, neurotic dogs, and how to grow astounding broccoli.

When my classmates at Fayetteville-Manlius High School were dancing at our senior prom in 1979, I was working on pig farm in Denmark, doing the kinds of things you don’t normally do in a prom dress. But I did make it to my Junior Prom in 1978…

Image and video hosting by TinyPic … and I had a blast.

Tell me your best and worst prom memories, please.

See you tonight! Bring your dancing shoes and money for a pancake house breakfast at 4am!

20 Replies to “Want to Hang Out With Me Tonight?”

  1. Hi Laurie

    I was and still am a very good friend of your sisters and I remember this picture vividly. To my recollection this picture was always prominently displayed. You may not realize this but you were the utmost in prom sophistication and gorgeousness to your annoying little sister and her best friend. We were in total awe. We would sit and look at this picture and dream of what we were going to wear and hope that our dates were as handsome as yours. You may have thought at times you were an awkward teen but to us you were just the coolest! Please give your sister my best. Donna

    P.S. I now have a teenage daughter and she is a huge fan of your work. Thank you for writing such wonderful books.

  2. broken link

    The School Library Journal link, with the updated rules, actually goes to one of your earlier Live Journal pages.

    Nice Prom picture. The pictures I have of my various Prom adventures, which are a story worth telling, would scare you!

    eas

  3. Oh, goodness, prom memories!

    Well, for my junior year prom my mom made me go. That’s always a fun story. I told her she had to make my dress and pay for my ticket, which I thought was going to get her off of my back. Nope. She didn’t even hesitate! I did get a gorgeous dress out of it, though.

    The people I went with sucked, however. I went with two of my single girlfriends and they spent the entire night complaining about how they weren’t dating anyone. I told them multiple times that if there was someone they wanted to dance/hang out with they were totally welcome to. I think they had more fun complaining 😛

    Senior year was a blast though. I went with a huge group of friends, both singles and couples. I cooked a pasta dinner beforehand (everyone else contributed side dishes). There are hilarious pictures of me in my prom dress brandishing my pasta spoon as a weapon to keep people away from my stove. The only awkward part was my ex-girlfriend was part of the crowd, with her new boyfriend, and she spent more time hanging out/flirting with me than with him….very, very awkward. Everyone else was awesome, though.

  4. School Library Journal link

    and the link SLJ has refers back to your first draft of your rules.

    xoxo

  5. Re: broken link

    I know. SLJ didn’t post the rules on their site – they linked to my blog. So the first SLJ link takes you to their newsletter, the second link take you to the contest rules direct so you don’t have to click twice.

  6. What prom? Being the “Walking Encyclopedia” I knew no one would ever ask me out, so I took pre-emptive steps and declaimed vocally on how silly the whole thing was, even as I helped make crepe paper flowers (we’re talking low-income rural Vermont in 1974, here). I spent the night baby-sitting.

    Cut to spring 1975. We seniors are discussing how lame this year’s junior prom will be, because we are, of course, the vastly superior class. Bill P., one of my guy friends, tells me that he would have asked me out last year, but he thought I didn’t want to go.

    Gulp.

    No, we don’t go to the prom. But I learned something really painful about putting up too good a front.

  7. Heh. I spent my senior prom camping in Canada with my Girl Scout troop. Never regretted it, either. 🙂

  8. I just finished my freshman year so I haven’t made any prom memories yet. But this year’s seniors organized a massive food fight the Monday before prom, and half the faculty ended up pelted with ketchup-y french fries. Prom was almost cancelled. It was epic.

  9. Worst prom memory? The night that was supposed to be my prom.

    When I was sixteen, I became quite ill (eventually diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Fibromyalgia) and because of the illness, I ended up quite behind in my schoolwork. So I was supposed to graduate in 2005, but I didn’t. My next door neighbour was also in my grade–in most of my classes actually, since we were both in French Immersion. She threw a pre-prom party. So, it was bad enough dealing with the fact that I was at home, with greasy hair and exhausted on prom night, but I also had to see many of my classmates (former classmates?) dressed to the nines on what was supposed to be my night, too.

    Best prom memory? Well, hopefully I’m going to make it. I’m finally graduating this year so my prom is technically Monday. I don’t know anyone very well, so instead, my friend and I have discussed a movie night. That strikes me as a pleasant way to spend prom night–with someone whose company I thoroughly enjoy, kicking back and relaxing.

    I’m still ill, but not nearly to the extent I was. Headed to university next year, where better things await me (and said friend is one of my roommates).

  10. believe me, I’m a freshman in college, and going to prom seemed like a big deal, but I can’t believe now that I even thought twice about going. Just being with your friends is reason enough, and the movie idea sounds awesome to me, Just thought I’d throw in my 2 cents

  11. Ah, prom

    Yay for prom memories!

    For my junior prom, I think the best memories I have take place before it actually started. I was at a friends house and the entire day was devoted to listening to music, prepping dinner (it was a delicious soup with biscuits 😀 All homemade), eating, and getting ready. There aren’t really bad memories for this prom either… I guess the worst was standing in line for the photos, it took forever.

    For my senior prom, it was pretty fun too. I have some good memories of seeing a friend there+dancing when I never would have expected him to even show up.

    The worst thing that happened was spilling my punch all over the nice, crisp, white table cloth at our table.

  12. Our school doesn’t have a Junior Prom. u.u

    You can only go to the Senior Prom if a Senior invites you. Well, I had three senior friends who were guys, and I thought that there was a slim possibility that one of them would ask me. Nope. One didn’t go, one went with another of my friends, and the third? He didn’t go either. Except later, he told me he wanted to ask me…but he was too scared I’d say no. I could’ve killed him.

    I am, however, going to my Senior Prom this year. ^_^ Unless the guy of my dreams magically falls from the sky, I’m going in a group of people who don’t care about prom. =P Me, my best female friend, and our four guy friends. Who is dating who? We’ll leave that up to you to decipher. xP We’ll all probably dress up, do the pictures, go out to eat, show up for ten minutes, and bail out…opting to play Super Smash Brothers at someone’s house, or Oshka in the park.

  13. prom? private christian school, here. dancing=devil. we just had a jr/sr banquet, which didnt amount to much since the jr class wanted to save their class funds for their senior trip…

    i did escort a friend to her prom though. we met at summer camp one year, and every year we would connect at camp and it would be an amazing week of hanging out 24 hours a day. pure amazing. i didnt find out until the 3rd or 4th year that she had had a crush on me the entire time.

    anyhow, she invited me to her jr prom, which was about 2 hours away, so i spent the night at her house. we didnt dance much. neither of us wanted to. chattered with her friends, complained about the raunchy dancers nearby, etc. went to her house after to pull 83 bobby pins (yes, we counted) out of her head and watch “whose line” and “matrix” with her parents – very fun way to end an evening. and by “evening” i mean in between the part where the prom ends and the part where the sky starts getting light again.

  14. Hey, you look just…

    …like a girl I knew in the last century. She was tall, sweet, had an outrageous laugh if you were lucky enough to hear it, and played a very tough game of two on two.

    As I understand it, she grew up to be a great Mom and a country farmer.

    You remind me of her.

    J.

    PS: Who is that guy?

  15. hijacking not intended, the heart and mind are elsewhere…

    Laurie~
    I was wondering if you could put out a supportive word for Save the Children? I know how widely read your blog is. I just learned today that Sarah, the little girl I sponsored from Egypt was killed in a car accident this week. She was just 5yrs old and I would really like to generate some interest in the charity in her honor. I posted in her memory and I would feel very proud to know that through a tragedy, someone new connecting with a child in need.

    With much appreciation
    Kim

  16. My first thought was, Oh, what a cute photo–who’s the guy, anybody I know?

    My second thought was, Hey, she looks the same but not!

    My third thought was, Somebody glued stef’s head on somebody else. I have photos of her with that same expression and with her head at the exact same angle.

  17. well i didn’t go to my prom, so i have no prom memories to tell you about. i went to an alison krauss and union station concert instead, and i am so glad i did because it was a great concert lol! (the reason i didn’t go was because i had nobody to go with.) nice picture by the way-you’re so pretty! =) ♥

  18. I know–she’s the opposite of most parents, and so invested as to write you for advise?
    Three cheers for that caring mom.
    And for you. Great advice. =)

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