Law School Prom

Saturday night was the "Barristers' Ball" or Law School Prom, as it is informally referred to. Unfortunately, Helen was in town last weekend, while my parents were in town this weekend. Despite several jokes over the previous weeks, I did not take my parents to this event although there was serious contemplation about having friends over to my apartment before the prom to have my parents take pictures of the couples in front of my fireplace.

Flying solo and quite exhausted after writing my brief throughout Thursday night and then going on a nice little bender in D.C. on Friday with my buddy Nick who was in town, I was slow in getting into the excitement at the dance. In many ways it was like high school prom (gowns, occasional tuxedo, corsage, and dancing); in other ways it was not so much (open bar, live music, lack of my date fooling around with another dude in the bathtub while I slept in a closet).

Overall the night was a fun experience, bookended by some unpleasantries. Early on, I arrived at the dance without the benefit of the pre-party and was doomed to play catch-up for a while. Mix in the fact that I was stuffed from a wonderful dinner at the Ivy Inn with my parents, exhausted from the previous two nights, alone on prom night, and I was concerned this would be a miserable. Things picked up, courtesy of the open bar and the band providing hits from the 70's, 80's, and 90's. Musically, I think the highlights were Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" and Earth, Wind and Fire's "September." Respectively, those songs brought me back to summers on the Jersey shore and parties at the ol' fraternity with DJ Nick spinning. Though I'm not usually a big fan of cover bands, these guys had some talent and I loved the fact that at any given time there were 6-10 girls from the law school dancing on stage with each other, with the band members, and with ass-slapping a plenty. (band to ladies, ladies to band, ladies to ladies)

By the time the dance was over, everyone piled onto buses to head to the after-party, being held at a local restaurant and bar. My buddy Matt had acquired a bottle of bourbon which was passed around the bus until there was no more. It was at this point that my lack of sleep really started to hit and I just wanted to go home and go to bed. Fortunately, I wasn't trapped at the after-party for too long and was able to catch a cab home. It was truly "An Evening to Remember." (that was the theme)