memories: stake dances.

Lately I've been remembering a lot of funny things I've done with friends in the past, and I don't want to forget them, so I decided that it would be a good idea to post them all in a week (or maybe a few weeks, because there are a lot) so I can laugh at them later. So here goes!

When I was in Junior High and High School, my best friends, Emily and Erica, and I would always look forward to the monthly stake dances. Our tradition was to dress up crazy and to wear bright, neon colors (which I now am a little embarrassed about) and attend these dances every month.

The earliest memory I have at a stake dance was one night when I was about 14 years old. Earlier that day, I had modelled for Modest by Design, a company that makes modest prom dresses. My hair and make up were fixed up and fancy, and I had on a black shirt and skirt. Suddenly, the DJ announced that there would be a "Shoe Dance," and he told all the girls to put one of their shoes in the middle so a boy could pick one, and the two of them could dance. I put my shoe in, and the most gorgeous boy picked my shoe. I couldn't have been more thrilled. I went up to him, and he gave me my shoe back and walked away. As I stood there, not knowing what to do next, Emily told me to put my shoe back into the middle, and so I did. I waited and waited, but no one was picking my shoe. A few minutes later, a boy picked up my shoe. He held it up, and I walked over to him to get it. Instead of handing it to me like all the other boys did, he knelt down, and put my shoe on for me. Everyone clapped for us. Then we danced. When the dance ended and as people were walking out, I heard a few people call it the "Cinderella Dance."

Another memory I have is when Emily, Erica, Rachel and I snuck into the boys' bathroom to get a picture by the urinal. My boyfriend-at-the-time, Erik, was with us, and we told him to stand guard, and tell us if anyone was coming. We all ran in and took a few pictures, and were laughing the whole time. When we were finishing up, a man who was chaperoning the dance walked in and saw us, and got mad. We awkwardly walked out of the bathroom, and got mad at Erik for not telling us someone was coming. We eventually made "Boys Bathroom Madness" a tradition for every stake dance we attend.

One night at a stake dance held outside under the church pavillion, Emily, Erica and I were sitting in Emily's car, trying to think of something else to do, because the dance was super lame. Out of nowhere, two of the chaperones from the dance came up to Emily's car, rested their arms on the door, and told us that we needed to be in the dance, because we couldn't stay in our car and hang out in the parking lot. We politely said okay, and then drove off. On our way out of the parking lot, Erica shouted out the window, "Vote for me!"

Another time, after going to a stake dance, we decided to call up Birdsley and Peter and hang out at the local Smith's with them. At that time, I was texting a boy named Dakota, but we called him DK for some reason. I hadn't before met Dakota, and for some reason, he wanted to meet me that night, so I told him to come to the Smith's we were hanging out at, and he agreed to meet me there. As he was on his way, someone had the idea of making Erica pretend to be me when he came. She agreed, and a few minutes later, he arrived. Erica said hi, and started talking to him while I sat in a chair facing away from them, laughing my head off with Emily, Birdsley and Peter. Erica just went along with what DK was saying, because he was talking about what he and I had talked about, and Erica was clueless. What's even more funny is the fact that DK had seen pictures of me, and Erica and I don't look alike at all. But he bought it. When he left, I texted him and told him it wasn't me he talked to. He got all mad, and swore. I haven't heard from him since. After he left, Birdsley randomly pulled out a phone that was missing the screen, and started to "talk to God." He could carry on a long and deep conversation, too.

My last memory of stake dances was when Erica and I decided to follow this one guy around everywhere he went, just for the heck of it. Everytime he would turn around to look at us, we'd pretend to do something else, like dance or talk. We kept it up for probably ten minutes, and eventually started to play "Rock, Paper, Scissors" everytime he would turn around. Eventually, when it was more than obvious that we were following him, he said, "Will you guys please stop following me?" We just walked away.

Stay tuned for more funny stories about my past. I've got a ton more to share. :)