Downtown Portland with Kaylee

I was invited to prom by these two really awesome girls, who have become really amazing friends. Melissa and Kaylee were in my Government and Economics class last year, and Kaylee and I went to CAL together. I have known of them all four years of my high school career, but last year is when I really started to get to know them. This year, our friendship has grown and they asked me to be in their prom group. For the longest time, I did not want to go. I thought it would be boring, just dancing and loud music. I went to a few stores and saw some tacky prom dresses, and my final decision was NO. Or so I thought. Kaylee told me that she was going to take me to the Oregon Convention Center and we were going to go to Abby's Closet. Abby's Closet is a great event, it is once a year and it helps girls find FREE prom dresses who can't afford to buy one. I decided to go with Kaylee, but not go to prom. 

Well, the Tuesday right before we went to Abby's Closet, I decided to go to prom. I could have bought my own dress, but Kaylee let me borrow one of her's, and we went to go check out Abby's Closet just to see and for the experience. It was a fun experience! 

Kaylee picked me up at 8:15, and she drove us to Lloyd Center. We caught the MAX train to the Oregon Convention Center, which was only five minutes away from Lloyd Center. It was a short train ride, for the better. We then walked down to Starbucks, Kaylee bought us coffees, and we each bought a breakfast sandwich. We talked until the event opened, which was at 9:00.

We walked back to the Convention Center, and entered the room. A massive room, areas were separated off by curtains, and there were rows, and rows of chairs in the center of the room to wait and grab a dress. We showed our student IDs, and we sat down. The wait was about 45 minutes, it gave us another chance to talk. Our number were called, and we went and sat down at another grouping of chairs and we met Abby, the founder of Abby's closet. That was neat. 

When our row was called, we raced in and looked through the dresses. It was not a free-for-all kind of thing. It was organized into a system. Each row was called, and we were given 30 minutes to 60 minutes to shop for a dress. The dresses were organized by size, and by color. You could only take 5 dresses into the dressing rooms, and once you were done trying them on, you had to take them back out and hang them back up, and pick out more dresses. Kaylee found a dress for the fashion show, because she is a designer in the Barlow Fashion Show. I found a dress, I really liked it... at first. 

Once we were done at Abby's Closet, and after they bagged up our dresses, we left and caught the MAX train to Pioneer Place, the hoity toity mall downtown.

 We went to L'occitane and I bought a hand cream and a lip balm, and I got a free birthday present with it, since it is my birthday month. 

We wanted to get something to eat, so we went to the food court, and decided to get some sushi. We shared a plate of sushi, and decided to challenge ourselves and use chopsticks instead of a fork. We even dipped our sushi in soy sauce with our chopsticks, we were pretty proud of ourselves. 

After sushi, Kaylee dropped me back off at home. It was a great day! I went home and tried on my dress, and then Kaylee's dress to compare for my family. My family really liked Kaylee's dress on me, but I was stubborn and I wanted to wear my dress. In my mind, it was so beautiful, and I wanted to wear my own dress. 

My whole family loved Kaylee's dress, both sets of Grandparents, my aunt, my parents, my sister, my little cousins. Yet, I was still stubborn, and wanted to wear my own dress. 

It was a fun day, last Sunday. I want to hang out more with Kaylee and I want to hang out with Melissa too. They are really fun girls, and they have become such great friends. I'm glad they asked me to go to prom with them.