the pseudo-prom.
written: 9:45 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 31, 2004

9 a.m.

What am I doing up so early? I slept at 3 for chrissakes.

Okay, I'm rather excited about something that's gonna take place later on in the day, but never mind about that right now.

I'm still a bit groggy so the brains aren't processing info and the likes of it very well. Hence, once again, I declare that all incoherence and grammatical errors are wholly unintentional and regrettable.

Anyway. Last night's pseudo-prom/graduation/shit.

It was even worse than what I'd expected. Honestly, I don't think that farce was worth $20. Do you know who the school hired to set up the not-huge-enough platform where we unfortunately suffered on for half of the "show"? Some fucking funeral services company. That completely explains why the fucking thing looked like a void deck event. And I wouldn't even have known that it was a funeral services company if my dad hadn't told me what the company's name means when we saw it on the back of the truck on the way home.

It was the single most unglam, unclassy and the most crass event I've ever attended in recent memory. I wasn't even expecting much from the outset, but when my mom drove past the side gate of the school and I got a peek of the field, I just wanted to cry. And the dressing was just...okay, let's put it this way. There were people coming in gowns and make-up with complicated hair-dos, while on the other bloody extreme, there were geniuses coming in T-shirts and jeans.

Hilarious, really. And it was so boring as well. You just do nothing but sit there and watch people take photographs after you're tired of taking photos and there's nobody left to take photos with because you're a cynical bitch and you don't care for 99.99% of the student population which means that your photo-taking partners are very limited, and not to mention, the MC for the night was very irritating. He cracked unfunny Singapore-style jokes, even going the extent of sprouting that nonsensical Phua Chu Kang catchphrase, "Don't pray pray ah!" (hilarious Singaporean mispronounciation of 'play'). When I heard that I was just like...what in the world am I stuck in, for crying out loud? Too much Singlish usage, such that it was unbearable. After a while I just tuned him out. And he even mispronounced the name "Arthur". Oh my god. How difficult is it to say "Ah-ther"? Duh.

Dinner was - brace yourself for this - a fucking buffet. That is just so amazingly cheap. I'm sorry but buffets are reserved for two venues: 1) gatherings at relatives' houses and 2) quality hotels like Goodwood Park and other places along those lines. In other words: not at a fucking junior college graduation that's already bad enough because it's held not even in the middle of the field, but to the right of the field if you're looking down from the grandstand. People had to queue for food. It was an absolutely grisly sight.

I'm sitting here, in my room, in front of the laptop, and I just can't get over how disappointing the whole fucking shit was. I mean, in the first place I don't care all that much; hence, to be left with such a sour aftertaste in the mouth just goes to show what a drag-queen event last night was. I know we're a neighbourhood school, but I think we can try to rise above that from time to time, you know? I'm not even going off about how it's held in school. It's just that they promised something quite magnificent (though of course, being me, I cynically didn't buy it and hey, I was proven right) and they were going to deliver but it was completely thwarted by the principal's obsession with cutting cost. So what happened in the end? The principal roped in his friend and the friend did the whole thing up.

Funeral services, right? Certainly felt like one: the death of whatever sliver of tiny chances I might've had at a memorable junior college pseudo-prom/graduation/bullshit. Fuck it. I just knew that I shouldn't expect anything from Jurong Junior. I feel sorry for all of us.

Why do I always hate the schools that I go to? I still hate St. Nicks (although Sec 4 was a lot more memorable than last night) and after last night, I hate Jurong Junior even more. What a complete travesty, complete waste of money, almost-complete waste of time.

In fact, it would've been a complete waste of time if it weren't for the company. Mel and I were supposed to split for town like not even halfway through the shit, but I had to cop out on her last minute 'cause my parents didn't want me walking outside the boundaries of school in the tube dress. Why? They're afraid that I'd get raped (seriously).

Going home after the shit while everyone else headed out to have more fun felt like a real drag, but I know that if I stayed out late when my folks didn't give their consent, it'd only lead to more bickerings in the house and the huge thunderstorm that took place between my brother and my mom yesterday afternoon was more than enough to last me a lifetime, thank you very much. I try not to lie anymore. But sometimes, it's inevitable; it all depends on the situation, and I don't think staying out after the stupid farce in school was worth lying to my folks.

But anyway, I feel really bad about getting Mel stuck at that place the whole time, as it was really shitty and horrible. I'm glad she was there though. I can't imagine going through the shit all by myself.

Took some pictures. I'm convinced that I look hideous in all of them. I'm just not photogenic, no matter what. I should stop trying to change that inherent trait.

I might scan some of them in and post them here when I develop the photos. It all depends on my mood though.

So, after the crappy dinner, we all went up to the hall (the_stomphouse! seriously!) for the pseudo-prom segment. It was unbearably stupid. The band was all right; they played Creed's "What If", the one of a few Creed songs that I can tolerate and find pretty enjoyable. But you know what's really funny? The singer had the lyrics in his hands. God.

The song's from the Scream 3 soundtrack, by the way, which I bought when I was in secondary school. Pretty cool.

But when the band was playing, people were either standing around, sitting around, or clapping their hands along with the beat. HAHAHAHAHAHAH. Clapping their hands! And I thought Xiaotian from Formula 17 was the only idiot in the world who'd clap his hands like a total geek when he's supposed to be dancing. Jeez.

And the stupid pageant segment was needlessly long and excruciatingly boring. It wasn't entertaining at all. Mel and I found Meg Ryan and we sat down with him and rapped for a bit. Meggy looked gorgeous, by the way. Nice dyed hair, nice shirt and nice red tie. My gorgeous Meg Ryan; ha, ha, hahahahaha ha. He's definitely better-looking than the real Meg Ryan.

Okay, I have nothing else to say about last night. I got home at around 12; my folks picked Mel and I up. I kept myself awake writing in my diary and writing a new shonen-ai (literally, boy-love) Slam Dunk fic which I wanted to roughly complete in one sitting but my tiredness got the better of me. And anyway, the writing got damn stilted after a while. Words weren't coming out right and sentence structuring was just really...tough. I don't know. I just couldn't think anymore, after a while.

And I did it. That thing which I've been wanting to do. It wasn't face-to-face, but I guess I can settle for SMS. Made it slightly less awkward and weird too.

So, time to tie up loose ends. It's the last day of the year. If you can't do it on New Year's Eve, when can you do it anyway?

What have I got to lose? Nothing. I don't care anymore. Fuck it. Jurong Junior is out of my life and the next time I'd step foot in there is when I go back to get my A Level results (aka to meet my executioner), which wouldn't take long anyway so...yeah.

Besides, I've been doing stupid things my whole life. What's one more stupid thing, right?

Right. Self, I totally concur with you.

before sunrise // before sunset

Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010