Saturday, April 27 was the night of our Alternative Prom and "Somewhere over the Rainbow" was somewhere in Matamoras, Pennsylvania. And we knew we weren't in Kansas anymore as we followed the yellowbrick road through the Best Western Hotel and arches of rainbow colored balloons created by Dominic Peluso. Those balloon arches were fierce, they must have taken an awful lot of blowin'! Okay, so we didn't have Dorothy with her ruby red slippers to lead the way, but we had Kris Jarmann instead, in a pair of $7.99 shoes he bought at Walmart that he glitter-glued into the real thing and then some. Judy Garland would have been proud! The Grand Ballroom was transformed into our own personal OZ with stunning table decorations, and a DJ who played all the latest dance music, free style, electric slide, old school and anything else you could think of. He even took song requests and actually played them! Now when does that ever happen? We were most definitely in Oz! Patty was our Auntie Em and Cary was the Great Oz himself! And although Toto was nowhere to be found, we had the beautifully coiffed "Steady Mess" working the room, a true vision of loveliness wearing her best baubles this evening while the delicious diva, "Sugar" made a very grand entrance, as we lined the streets of Munchkinland to welcome her. Sugar, who with her flaming red hair and figure forming frock, reminds us of that relative all the other family members make scandalous remarks about. And if that wasn't enough, there to capture all this magic on film was Alan Kaplan, uber-photographer. If you were feeling more delirious than serious, Flash Shack Photo Booth provided lots of props to take your own pictures with. A big shout-out to all the members of our community who made this fantasy of a prom night come true, once again showing we are "making it better now."
