my first house party

inspired by this blog entry.

i was in 7th grade and attending a new school. my crush, micah, had invited almost the whole class to his birthday party. i must preface this story with the following: my education from pre-school through 6th grade was at a very small, private school. for the most part, we were a sheltered group of children not fully exposed to the ways of the world. my transition to blessed sacrament (yes, a catholic school) came with some emotional turmoil and exposure to lots of umm...new things. these kids were faster than any i'd met at that point (although the subsequent transition to public school would make them seem like puritans by comparison...and not the hester prynne kind either).

so anyway, micah's birthday party was my first grown-up party, so to speak. my mom called his mother ahead of time to see what kind of party this would be exactly. she took me to sears to buy a new outfit too. i spent some time getting dressed and i think i even put on lipstick and my favorite clear heart drop earrings. despite all this, i was extremely nervous when my mom dropped me off.

micah's mom led me down into the basement where all the other kids were. the first thing i noticed was that i was a bit overdressed (i don't remember exactly what i wore but i'm sure stirrup pants, a big shirt, and a diagonal belt were part of the ensemble...this habit of overdressing would translate to fabulousness in my adult life). the second thing i noticed was the boys were on the opposite side of the room from the girls. everyone was talking to each other though so i inconspicuously found my way to a seat. i sat there hoping not to be noticed but my nervousness had manifested itself in my right foot -- it was swinging like mad. in fact, after a short while it was swinging so hard that my shoe flew across to the other side of the basement. as if a record scratched, above the middle school chatter someone said, "Yo, whose shoe is that?"

of course i was mortified. and of course i had to get up and claim it lest i'd have been sitting knee-high stockinged out on the arm of the couch. so much for not being noticed. things weren't so bad after that. i didn't dance or eat anything but i did talk with some of my classmates. a game of 7 minutes in heaven had started up but thankfully my mom came to pick me up before it was my turn.

and you know my shoe was the talk of the class on monday morning.