High School b*stards
I'm one of those people who looove fancy dress - have my own stash of costumes and wigs etc and can't understand why others don't join in. It was not always thus though..

Fade back to the end of 1988. I'm in my second year of high school, and our yearly school disco is annouced, with a fancy dress theme. People start talking; 'I'm going to wear this, I'm going to wear that'. I keep quiet as my parents don't have much money and can't sew...so I know I don't have anything. But the talk continues and even my friends join in. I've got to find something!

The night of the disco I'm in distress, crying to my parents - I don't have anything to wear! My dad, being a military man, pulls out some old khaki fatigues and dog tags and says, 'you can go as Rambette'. I'm mortified and embarrassed, but I figure it's better than nothing and appreciate my dad's kindness.

So, in head to toe green, including head band and little brothers AK-47 water pistol, dad drops me off for the dance. It's then I get my first taste of reality - when I hand over the ticket I realise none of the organisers are dressed up. When I inquire as to why I'm told 'ah, couldn't be bothered...'.

when I get into the dance it sinks in - NO-ONE has dressed up, except for me in my humiliating 'Rambette' costume. Ah, not quite no-one it seems - two of my just as young and naive friends have come as Cleopatra and Kylie Mole (aussie tv character). The three of us cower in a corner while the older kids look at us with derision and our peers laugh out loud. And of course as it was a school dance we weren't allowed to leave until our parents came to pick us up, so we were stuck there for four hours.

I still don't understand why the older kids/organisers would choose a fancy dress theme and then not dress up. Why other kids would talk for days about what they were wearing and then not bother. It would even be okay if it were some colossal conspiracy theory against the three of us who dressed up but we just weren't that important at my school - uncool yes, but not in a noticable way. Till that night, I guess.

After an hour or so of embarrassment though I made the best of a bad situation though by filling up the water pistol and letting Rambette wreak what petty revenge she could upon as many fellow students as possible.

Maybe that's why I put so much effort in now - as I've been so thoroughly humiliated it can't get worse...

on a happier note I met Mr Blu-k at a fancy dress party. I was dressed as a lost swedish backpacker and even had an incorrect map. Mr Blu-k (dressed as rather fetching pilot) said that if he could see my map of Tasmania he might be able to help me. Luckily for him I laughed instead of punching him, could have gone either way.

apologies for length but I'm saving a fortune on therapy bills....
(blu-k, Fri 13 Jan 2006, 2:06, Reply)