Two Meetings and Three Trains

I had to go to 2 Parent Association meetings last night.  The Dance PA and the General PA.

We'll start with Dance, because it was awesome.  I met the teachers and they are *SO COOL*.  Really, it is a unique magical place, and the dance department is a bubble within a bubble.
Everyone there has had a distinguished professional career.

The class musicians were there as well (all the dance classes have live music, which dramatically impacts the dance training.  This is almost unheard-of for a public school.) and I loved hearing them speak.  They add a wonderful depth of richness, perspective, and experience to the entire teaching experience.  They are wonderful people, decades of experience, very artistic, very distinguished.

I was happy and impressed with everyone, and Daya being there is truly one of the greatest blessings of our lives.  The teachers think it is magical there (yes they used that word); that surely passes to the students' experience.  How many public school teachers would describe their workplace as magical?

Of course they want money.  And it is right to give them money so I did.  They can have $250 of my NYU Langone refund.

The senior dance show last Spring cost $36,000 to produce. Yes that is the correct amount of zeros.
That's just one show.  Doesn't cover a million other costs.  You should watch it, it is astounding.  they consider their competition and peer group to be the working professionals in Lincoln Center and Broadway.

I don't even know how this all happened.  I'm not one of those moms who had her kid auditioning trying to get in stuff from an early age.  I just stuck her in dance class so she could have fun and be involved with something after school.  And it turned into this.  It's astounding.

*******
The General PA meeting started late.  Actually they started on time but it was still late.  My friend Catherine (her daughter is in drama) was there and we sat together.  We were both very tired.  But didn't want to miss anything.

We didn't make it even 10 minutes into the meeting.  We couldn't sit through it.  They did too many slow introductions we have heard before, but when they started giving us a guided tour of the website especially pointing to the donation button, we bailed.  It's stuff we know, it's all repeat, and frankly a waste of time.  I want to be involved but especially so late at night after a long day I want short meetings with non-repetitive info that is important.  And I was done with a crowded event where I don't know anyone.  After Catherine and I made our exit, another group followed right behind us.

NYC Transit had other plans for us which did not consist of getting home quickly.
One train and 35 minutes home turned into walking-transfers to different stations, two fare swipes, three trains, re-routes, lots of waiting, bad musicians, suspicious smells, weirdly empty trains, sitting in tunnels, incoherent announcements, incorrect transit apps,  and I didn't get home til after 9:30pm.

It was still better than sitting through that meeting.