I had to work this weekend. I attended a two-day beer tasting event, representing my current employer, beer.com.

Yes, I got paid overtime to drink beer. Life is good.

The tasting was held at the Durham Civic Center, which is part of the Durham Marriott. On the second night, signs were posted on all the doors to the hall (which were used frequently by those who needed to refresh their bladders): NEW RULE! No beer allowed in the bathrooms. Police are enforcing this.

Seems the hotel was hosting the Riverside High School Prom that very evening. I've never heard of a prom in March either, but there the kids were, all decked out in satin and lace and whatever. And there the beer drinkers were, all decked out in Harley t-shirts and jeans. Everyone used the same two facilities. This led to some interesting conversations in the bathroom.

I was talking to my boss about some technical issues, and standing between us were a couple of happening young things, both of whom were dead sure they were getting some. The terms "servers" and "getting served" kinda got a little mixed up.

Some of my friends commented on the current prom fashions. I wasn't able to get in on this discussion, as I never went to a prom. When I was a junior, I was still recovering from a nasty hacky-sack injury and I suffered in the social skills department. As a senior, attempting to cover up said social skills issues, I declared that I wouldn't attend the prom out of social protest (tickets were $100 a pair and once you add in tux and dinner the evening got pricey fast). Actually, the only nights in my life I spent that much on social occasions was the 1992 Presidential Inauguration and my wedding reception.

Say what you will about Bill Clinton, an Inauguration beats a prom hands down. Obviously, neither is even in the same galaxy as my wedding.

Back to the prom. Apparently the girls were wearing "revealing" prom dresses. This meant that they showed an ankle and maybe even some calf. I didn't notice any cleavage (I wasn't looking very hard), but apparently there was some on display. The consensus was that proms had loosened up since "our time" (say, 10-15 years ago).

My own personal favorite style point went to the young man who was wearing a combination cummerbund/shoulder holster. He had a cell phone in the holster.

But back to the odd combination of events. What the hell was the hotel thinking? Not only did the participants have to use the same restrooms (which meant that prom-going girls had to wait an average of 15 minute or more to powder their noses), but both events let out at 11 p.m., which meant that a couple thousand half-drunk beer swillers were rambling through the remnants of a high school prom.

My theory is that this worked to the advantage of the young men, that any guy had to look much better to his date after she had swum through a crowd of fifty-something guys with potbellies. But, then, I just can't speak to the prom experience, so I could be way off. The women in my party didn't think that mattered one way or another.

I just seems that better planning might have avoided this whole situation. The night before, the Durham YMCA had been taking up the prom's space in the convention center. While those folks weren't amused by the tasting (I'm a Y member, and one of the guys asked me what was going on "over there." I told him, and he just sniffed and walked away), they mostly tolerated it. In any case, they had the life experience to know how to handle a bunch of tipsy folks.

I know kids drink a lot, but it's one thing to aim ol' Bob at the porcelain altar, and it's quite another to tell some grizzled dude to quit feeling up your date. Well, I didn't see any of that happening (and there were plenty of cops to make sure that it didn't), but I think you can get my drift.

Maybe the Durham Hilton might like to host the North Carolina Southern Baptist Convention and the Log Cabin Republicans the same weekend. Talk about your bathroom conversation.

Jon Worley has met plenty of beers he doesn't like, but he was most pleased with the fare at the tasting.