ugg!

It's not even nightfall and I've had a long day so far. Warning! This is going to be a long post, so please stop here if you're not interested, don't have the time, or don't have the attention span.

The necessary background:
I went to a sexual assault prevention seminar today for the Brooklyn diocese. It was to learn how to spot and prevent child molestation. Because the children's show I'm doing is at a Catholic church and I will be around children, the seminar, issued by the Catholic church, was mandatory. Since I am a trained advocate for sexual assault and domestic violence survivors I knew what to expect in this seminar.

The actual events:
I went to Brooklyn to take this class. No, that's not right. I was in BFE! Flatbush, to be more exact. I took a series of trains to get to the last stop on the 2 train. I allotted myself 2 hours to get out there from my apartment in Astoria and it took most of that time to finally get to the church where the meeting was. It probably wouldn't have been half as bad if the trains were running on time, were running at all, and didn't pass me by on the platform (thanks, fucking N train!).

At the meeting, only 4 other people showed up. The 2 videos shown were at least 10 years old. And I was really frustrated by the approach the seminar took. The facilitator was okay. She didn't seem to be all that prepared and she should have been asking more questions and doing less talking (I think she didn't want to be there) and should have had more information. The videos, thank god, didn't take the position of ignoring the events of the Catholic church child molestation scandal, but it didn't address them either (no big surprise there), which was upsetting because it was the reason why this was mandatory. Plus, the information they provided didn't go far enough. It was simple and surfaced and basic, basic, basic. I decided to not talk because I didn't want to get passionate and start an argument.

After 2 1/2 hours I finally was able to leave to come to work. 1 1/2 hours on 3 trains (fucking ridiculous, fucking MTA), I finally was able to make it back to Times Square for work, only to find that it was really sunny out. And you know what that means. Sunny clear day = throngs of stupid tourists crowding up the neighborhood.

The day's other event:
I had a nice surprise waiting for me on my desk. A book I ordered from Samuel French arrived. More Ten-Minute Plays from Actors Theatre of Louisville, which features a great monologue I did for a district competition in 12th grade and got superior ratings on. It's from an unpublished Brian Friel play that was performed at the Actors Theatre in '80. I'm all giddy inside.

Now, you may return to your usually scheduled life.