Strangers on a Train

I spent close to eight hours on the train today, traveling to and from Manhattan for an audition for which I should not have bothered. The ride reinforced my long-held disdain for the strangers with whom I am forced to travel. The guy across the aisle (his name was Ari. No, he did not introduce himself, I heard him announce it every time he answered his Blackberry, which was every few minutes) was in intense discussions with Doug and Linda regarding the advisability of initiating impeachment proceedings against a judge. Ari was also adamant that everything in the new brochure have an online site, so all the bloggers can link to it. (This blogger won't be doing so.) Also, Ari was pretty desperate to get the videographer to the office on Monday or Wednesday to tape the next online newsletter in time for it to be transferred to the DVD being sent out to all the Religious Press. Oh, and Ari was concerned that those DVDs have high quality but be very cheap.

I had no interest in Ari's conversations, but could not drown them out, even with Sam Harris wailing in my headphones. This guy did an excellent job of holding everyone around him hostage to his phone calls. That is, until the woman seated ahead of me took over. She was a young woman of color, surely no older than 22, who was shouting at her children through her cellphone. She screamed at her son, and then her daughter, to go to school. (This argument took place around 10:30 AM). I very much wanted to tap this woman on the shoulder and tell her that her parenting skills were never going to improve while she did it via cellphone. Also, I really wanted to know why a woman in her early 20s had two SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN.

Then the guy seated behind me started to bark.

I don't mean he was barking orders into his Blackberry.

I mean he was BARKING. Like a DOG.

Is it any wonder my New York audition tanked?