This is essentially an entry from my personal online journal, so if it feels a little casual, that’s why.

-Frances

Every time that I escort, I am blown away once again by how great people seem to feel about harassing people very early on Saturday mornings.
Think about it: Saturday morning could consist of cartoons, cereal, cuddling. These are the three c’s of things that are more fun than going to an abortion clinic and telling people that they’re doing something wrong. There are a million other better things to do on Saturday morning that start with many different letters (sleep in, for one)! And that’s just getting into the “Don’t you have something better to do with your time?” question – there are tons of other questions I have about the protesters that come to the clinic that I won’t even get in to.

But, today went pretty well all in all. There was a really good ratio of escorts to protesters (about two protesters for every escort, or something like that). I also brought my camera for the first time. During the slow moments, which can be pretty common at certain points, it’s nice to be able to document what’s going on.

Here are some of my pictures: (These are not my greatest works, mind you, just snapshots, unedited, so, you know, don’t expect anything brilliant. Unfortunately some of the more colorful, creative characters weren’t there today.)

This group does NOT seem stoked to be praying for babies.

This nun fell asleep today. Saving souls IS tiring work, and if I had been sitting down, I certainly would have been napping too.

This is the sidewalk (gauntlet) that many clients walk down, being harassed along the way.

Jesus hangs out with that guy a lot.

I like to call this picture "Gossip Girls." They were gossiping in the middle of prayer time, tsk tsk! This woman (Donna, the one on the left) really frustrates me, and is very obnoxious to deal with on so many levels (see "Cast of Characters: Protesters" for just a few of those reasons). She is usually dressed in red to match her hair, which she says is her natural color. We figure she has a tub of spray tan stuff that she soaks in most days, so that her skin will fit in with the weird color scheme.

And here is Angela. Oh Angela. What a loud voice. The kind of voice that fails to get hoarse, that irks you every time you hear it, that makes you wish you had earplugs. I took another video of her, but she just held her bible in front of her face. For this one, I was just shooting from the hip, as my mom calls it, so she didn’t cover her face. I was having a conversation, which you can kind of hear, but she really drowns it out. She’s so loud and pushy. I can’t imagine having so much so say and saying it so loudly. She should really be an actress or a performer or something and put her energy and loud voice to better use.

What a way to start your weekend. I can’t imagine being a client and trying to take all of this in – it would be dreadful.

P.S. I am new to wordpress, so forgive any formatting issues, etc.