The Big Dance

About three weeks ago, the Dog Walker came home and told me he had been invited to Bingham Ball and that he had told this cute little trumpet player that he would go with her. “That’s it?” I asked. I’m secretly thinking…is this really a date? There was no amazing invitation or physical evidence of any kind and sometimes the Dog Walker gets confused. “Yeah, she just asked me if I wanted to go and I said yes,” he responded. “Why don’t you ask her the color of her dress?” I suggested.

A few days later he told me she didn’t know yet. So the date still remained a mystery. Just before he left on his California trip, he texted me the word “Silver.” (He always thinks I know exactly what’s going on in his head.) “What?” I asked, confused. “Her dress is silver.” That should have been good enough, but still I worried. I didn’t want to order an expensive flower or get the Dog Walker all excited about a date if he didn’t really have one.

So after he got back from California, I decided it was time to put it all on the line… “Ask her if you are doing a day activity,” I suggested. He punched out a text. Communication is way faster than when I was in school. “She says we are going to the play at the high school,” he commented. He was never worried, he always knew he had a date. I sighed with relief. “Let’s go order a flower,” I suggested.

The next morning I was giving a Happy Birthday wish to my best buddy. Her son also had a date to the big dance. “Where did you order his tux?” she asked. Huh?? This dance was never that formal when my older kids went to it. After we were finished with our conversation, I quickly called the high school. The office lady confirmed that now the Ball was right up there with Prom and yes, tuxes were appropriate.

It was Thursday and the dance was Saturday. I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to order a tux that quickly, so I convinced myself that a new tie would be good enough. After school the Dog Walker and I headed for JC Penney and bought him an awesome silver and black tie. When we got home I proudly displayed it for my sweetie. Then, like an idiot, I proceeded to tell him what my friend had said. “You better see if you can still get him a tux,” he remarked. I glanced at the clock. It was too late to do anything.

So first thing Friday morning I was working the phones, looking for a one-day tux shop. I found one just down the street and as soon as the Dog Walker got home from school, we headed over. Seems like everyone else had the same idea. There were at least 30 people in that shop and lined up outside the door, all waiting to check out tuxes. We got through surprisingly fast and the assistant assured me we could pick up the tux on Saturday morning.

When Saturday morning rolled around, we were in the middle of a Volleyball tournament. We had a half-hour between games, so the Dog Walker and I stopped to grab the tux. Unfortunately, the pants were too tight, but they assured me they could fix that problem in about 5 minutes. After 10 minutes they returned the tux to us all bagged up and sent us on our way. We tossed it in the back of the van and headed for our next game. On the way I called the Drama Queen and asked her to pick up the flowers.

After we were eliminated from the tournament, we raced home so the Dog Walker could shower and get ready to be picked up. I pulled the flower from the fridge and noticed that all the white roses had edges of brown! I frantically called the floral department and told them quite firmly that they needed to make us a new arrangement. Then we took off for Sport’s football game.

We grabbed the new flower on our way home. When we were all finally back at the house, it was just after 5:00 and time for the Dog Walker to dress for the dance. He looked fabulous, except that the gray bow-tie was missing! Thankfully, he had a black one that he used for band concerts and it looked fine. I guess at that point I should have just been grateful that he really had a date.