A Night Gone Wrong

It's true. Tuesday night was a complete fiasco.

Last week, I got an email through my mother and one of her coworkers about Al Gore coming to give a presentation at a Quaker school in Philly. Well, cool, thought I, must be the one An Inconvenient Truth is based on, so why not go? I told two friends about it, one of whom took the train downtown with me after work, to meet the other at the venue. We get there, wait in line for a bit, and get inside where everyone is buying a copy of what's basically a companion book to the film and the presentation, because Al's going to be signing after the presentation. We're not particularly interested, so we head into the gym, only to be shown out again, because of we don't buy a book, we can't get in until after everyone who has bought one.

Not only do I find this slightly annoying because it means we have to wait, but I feel like it at least partially goes against the whole message of his presentation/film/etc. After the fact, I understand that it was a book signing event, partially disguised as something more, but practiacally speaking, that's a lot of paper, and many people were, I'm sure, only buying books to a)get in and b)say that they have a book signed by Al Gore...regardless of whether they will ever read it or not. Goodbye to thousands of trees that might help to eliminate said Inconvenient Truth. But I also felt...compromised? I don't know if that's the right word. Maybe it was because it was at a Quaker school, but it's the last place I'd expect to be told an event is free, and then end up having to pay for [ultimately required] preferential treatment...and because it's all purported to be about saving the environment, not helping the former VP to earn more money*.

On top of that, at 6.45pm they closed the doors to the gym and didn't let anyone else in because it was at 'legal capacity'. They were nice enough to open the doors once Al came onstage so that we could catch every fifth word or so; and of course, people with books got to go in once others in front had gotten theirs signed, but the three of us left as soon as the presentation was over.

And that wasn't even half the evening. Erica went home, and Lauren and I had dinner in the train station, slightly discontent with the evening, but happy to be able to take an earlier train home. Until a storm came through, that is, and delayed our train for 30...then 45...then 67...then 77...and finally 88 minutes, after which it sat on the tracks for fifteen more before heading out at what felt like a whopping 10 mph. It must have taken 20 minutes to make what is usually a 7-minute trip to the first station outside the city. It would have been hell if either of us were on our own, but with someone else to talk to, it was ok, especially as Lauren is so entertaining. I finally got the whole story of the April night I missed out on when the rest of my friends hung out with Ok Go after their private show in Philly, and we both fretted a bit over having graduated and not knowing what we want to do or how to do it.

And that was about it. My dad met me at the Bryn Mawr train station so that I wouldn't have to deal with another dozen train stops at a snail's pace, and I got home at 11.45, tired and hot and slightly damp, with absolutely nothing to show for it.

Maybe I should have bought the book.





*To be fair, I don't actually know if that's what happens. I'm sure that at least some of the proceeds go to some good cause. The false advertising still bothers me.