the longest post of the century: the RUF formal, Part One

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A short preface: I wrote most of this entry yesterday over the course of the day, so if you get tired reading it, don't feel bad because I got tired writing it. Nothing has been added, though some things have been taken out.

Tuesday night was the RUF formal. Here is a detailed description.

I tried to see to whom I have already introduced you all, but since I couldn’t find a post I thought I’d made with most of these people in it, I suppose I shall have to re-describe them—please excuse the repetition.

Cast of Characters, in order of appearance:
Tara (whom you already know)
Rachel (whom you already know)
Katie: an English major who dresses like one, with clinking bracelets and a coat brocaded with roses, who is friendly to everyone
Austin: a tall, thin young man with dark hair who’s studying to be a computer programmer and is working on animation
Kevin: a quiet young man who plays the cello and is studying to be a petroleum engineer
Daniel: an Asian boy who reminds me of Will P., quietly cheerful, and very courteous
Asher: a young man with a bushy beard who occasionally wears Jewish-style clothes and who tonight had on a hat, a black suit, and a red umbrella slung over his arm
Andrew: Matt’s brother; a very, very tall young man, quiet, with dark hair; he also was wearing a hat
James: a quiet young man who’s a psychology major, loves French, and comes from Maine
(and various other boys with whom I am not well acquainted)
Jenny H. (whom you already know)
Spencer (whom you already know)
Jessica: a quiet but bubbly blond girl who hangs out a lot with boys
Katherine: the girl who joined us on our outing to find kites—a quiet girl with dark hair and a wide smile
Amanda: a very pretty, cheerful, softspoken young woman who’s an English major
Syneva: a dark-haired young woman who’s very similar to Amanda (though, just from my brief friendship with the two, I would say Syneva is the more practical of the pair), and who is Amanda’s best friend; she’s a double piano/cello major; she has a chuckling laugh
Esther: a slim young woman with short, curly hair and a bubbling giggle
Matt: a dark-haired, pale young chap who’s an English major but loves philosophy and thinks seriously about everything, then laughs about it later
Mr. K: the leader of RUF; a short, hobbit-like man who’s energetic, forceful, outgoing, and welcoming to everyone
Jenny (whom you already know)
Alisha (whom you already know)
Jason: a friendly young man with large ears and a big, happy smile—about all I know of him is that he’s a good dancer

When Tara knocked on my door this evening, I slipped on my silver sandals and went out to supper with her. The wind was bitterly cold. We met Rachel in the cafeteria. We were supposed to meet several boys there, too, Tara’s friends, but when they didn’t show up, we went ahead into the cafeteria, got our meals, and sat down with Katie. She and Austin were already at the table. We were soon joined by the boys who were going to meet us earlier: Kevin, Daniel, Asher, James, and Andrew. The boys were already dressed in their suits, and very debonair they looked in their black coats and slacks. Tara, Rachel, and I felt rather strange because we hadn’t dressed yet and were sitting at the table in jeans and sweaters. Jenny H. joined us. She’s been sick recently, and she had deep circles under her eyes. She seemed fragile to me, but she insisted that she was coming to the formal tonight. During supper, the party spirit prevailed. Jove, the Bringer of Joy, seemed to have joined us at the round table. I didn’t have much of an appetite; I was too excited by the prospect of the evening ahead.

After supper, Tara, Katie, Rachel, and I ran back to our respective rooms. I tossed my sweater and pants onto my bed and scrambled into my slip, struggling with the hook in the back. The layers of taffeta and net swished around my ankles like snow. I slid the shimmering, blue, mermaid’s-tail dress on over it, clasped my necklace on, and brushed my hair. Then I hurried down the hall to Tara’s room, my skirt hushing as I walked. I banged on Tara and Jennys’ door. Jenny opened it. She had on a straight-seamed, vivid blue, strapless dress with tiny, sparkly flowers embroidered all over skirt and bodice. Tara pulled a white jacket over her sleeveless dress—a black dress with a full skirt and mint-green ribbon sewn around the smooth hem. We waited for Rachel to call. When she called, Tara and I went downstairs to let her in from the lobby. In Tara and Jennys’ room, Tara brought out the other two formal gowns she had: a slinky, shiny grey dress and a short, ruffly, gauzy gown that was bright lilac. I could immediately sense Rachel’s hesitation as she looked at them. She decided to try on the grey dress, but asked, cautiously, if there was a jacket or anything that could go over it. I had a black cardigan, so I ran down to my room and then back again—but it was no use; the dress didn’t fit. Rachel kept on her plain, business-casual skirt and sweater. We struggled into our coats and then hurried downstairs.

Everyone shivered as the wind hit us outside and tossed our skirts around our knees. Jenny complained about her toes being cold. We clattered over to Twin Towers, Jenny’s and Tara’s high heels clicking on the pavement. Jenny led us briskly through the dorm to the lobby at the back. There we found everyone else: the boys who had eaten supper with us, Jenny H., Spencer, Jessica, Katherine, etc. We split up to drive to the house of the people who were to host the formal, a family in the church that the Ks and a lot of other people in RUF go to. Kevin, Daniel, Rachel, and I rode together. I slid onto the leather back seat with Rachel. Daniel and Kevin sat in front. On the way, Kevin put on some Brazilian-sounding music—lush Hispanic singing and exotic instrumentation, quite the contrast to the cold world outside and the stern, straight skyscrapers glinting to our right like the steeples of a thundercloud. We passed a church with grave angels peering down from cornice and arch. Streetlights glowed on their faces, and wings of shadow swept upwards behind them.

We drove down the highway south, out of the city with its thickly-layered highways and buildings. On the left, the land fell away, but the misty valley below was strewn with thousands of lights—streets, homes, shops. On the right, the land rose in a steep embankment crowned with silent trees, gaunt latticework pressed against the dark sky. At last, turning west, we entered a quiet neighborhood—large houses on expansive lots, with pastures between them in places. We turned into one of these houses, a big home that sparkled like a gingerbread house, encrusted with frost and glittering with lights like jellied candies. A pond glittered on the lawn below the house, its edges rimmed with ice. We entered through sliding glass door at one side. Through the glass, the huge room at the back of the house looked like a Christmas card picture: the tree shining in the middle of the room, decked in gold and silver and crimson; the young men standing about in their coats and ties; the young women hovering like scraps from a tailor’s shop, dressed in satin and velvet and taffeta, blue and pink and dark green; and a few children (the Ks’ children) in miniature versions of the adults’ clothes. Then we stepped through and became part of the picture.

Amanda greeted us and took our coats. Her pale pink dress was wrapped gracefully around her waist. She hurried away into the labyrinthine house. For awhile, Rachel and I stood uncertainly by the door. Then Syneva came up to us. She had on a smooth satin gown, white with dark blue edging, and she wore elegant white gloves that fit tightly above her elbows. They reminded me of cat’s paws. She chatted with us and helped us to join in the game that people were playing. Everyone had a name taped to their back, and they had to go around asking yes or no questions of people to figure out what name they were. Syneva had Eleanor Roosevelt. She asked questions of Rachel and me until she finally guessed it. Esther came over to us for a little while and asked a few questions. She had on a dark green dress, smooth satin like Syneva’s, but with a high, Jane-Austen-style waist and long ribbons in the back. Later, I told her that she looked like a character from Jane Austen, and she laughed that she’d always wanted to be Lizzy Bennett.

Rachel and I stood together in the kitchen, sipping rose-colored, lemon-tangy punch and trying to figure out what names we were. I eventually managed to narrow it down to someone “related to Abraham”, but I didn’t realize that I should think beyond Abraham’s immediate relatives. Syneva and Amanda joined us. “Am I… Eve?” I asked suspiciously at last, and I was. Amanda and Syneva tried to help Esther guess who she was. Esther finally guessed correctly: Hermione from the “Harry Potter” books. She didn’t like her name, so she gave it to Syneva to wear. I had a hard time answering Rachel’s questions. When I’d seen her name, I had been unable to suppress a shout of laughter—she was Athena, which seemed quite fitting considering Honors class. At last she guessed it. We helped others with their names: Austin, who turned out to be Rosencrantz, and James, who turned out to be Sigmund Freud, which occasioned a great deal of laughter. Austin, Rachel, and I hadn’t been very helpful to James, who knew more about Freud than we did—we only gave him misleading answers. It took Katie’s assistance before James figured out who he was.