It’s that time of year when girls get crazy with makeup, guys get fancy with suits, and couples get down on the dance floor. Expectations flowed through my mind as my group journeyed to Anaheim GardenWalk for Diamond Bar High School’s Homecoming. It was my first high school dance, and I hoped for the best night of my life. Man was I disappointed.

Let’s start off with a few positives. The venue itself wasn’t that bad; restaurants were scattered around Bowlmor Anaheim, offering a variety of options ranging from seafood at Bubba Gump to fancy pizza at California Pizza Kitchen.

I must say the true highlight of my night was the CPK waiters who were friendly, offered free birthday desserts, and constantly cracked jokes about my Spanish language incompetence. At one point, they even sent a water up to me spewing a list of questions in Spanish, and she received nothing but a blank stare from my utterly confused face.

The nightlife at GardenWalk was bustling with people and random street vendors throwing up flashing lights. Overall, the surroundings was a nice place to be leading up to the dance. It was the inside of Bowlmor that I had problems with.

Don’t get me wrong, the place looked amazing with bowling alleys stretching out across the room. Oxygen tanks were present with many flavors, and small photo booths were scattered around the area. The back of the venue had a colorful dance floor, and the overall venue was filled with drinks and attendees to enjoy.

However, after the initial glance, I started to notice many irksome things about the venue. The whole “dance” settled around bowling, but finding a lane was difficult with the number of people present. My group ended up getting a lane but then I realized after multiple gutters that bowling wasn’t such a fun idea. At the end of the game, my date and I had lost by some 60 points.

That didn’t leave many other options for my group. Oxygen tanks were something I really wanted to try out, but the lines were painfully long since there seemed to be only one station with three tanks grouped together. Not really an ideal setup for a place as crowded as Homecoming. Other than the oxygen tanks and picture booths, the only other activity available was dancing.

With that being said, I am not a dancer. I dream of being in All-Male, but sadly, my imaginative mind leaves my physical abilities crumbling in the dust. Put me on a crowded dance floor with music I couldn’t really hear, and the whole situation was less than ideal.

But in all seriousness, there was barely enough room for dancing at Bowlmor, as people were all jammed up into one corner of the building. Basically, crowded bopping concluded my night.

Overall, Homecoming wasn’t a letdown, but it was not a jaw-dropping experience. For a first high school dance, I was actually content with the whole event. However, I do hope for a better setup at next year’s Homecoming event. Oh and there is that prom thing coming up too.