Wednesday, September 14, 2011

looking around a room

I am secluded as I walk through the door and take a seat to wait for the doctors assistant to call my name.  I nestle down for it will be and always is a great wait.  The room is very large with not even a handful of people.  You would expect to hear someone coughing being at the doctors but not one person seems to be making that awful sick sound of flem as it thrust up their throat.   Thank god because even though I don’t have microscopic vision I can still see the little germs all over.  Their gangly little mouths chomping away like a little army flanking me on all sides.  My only defense is the hand sanitizer.
As I sit an wait and just stare around in this waiting room I take note of the magazines on the table next to me.  I always try to sit near them so I don’t have to get up.  Web MD seems to be a big hit around here, seeming as it’s the only magazine on the end table.  The end table has legs like tooth picks and to my surprise it’s holding up a stack of magazines and a shiny dark green ivy plant to boot.  Seriously this table doesn’t even wobble and it’s legs are seriously like wooden matches to hold all this up. This dark brown end table has a matching coffee table in the center of the room and its freighted with pamplets. Everything from cancer to arthritis to mental diseases and to top these all off a diabetes one smack dab in the middle.  That one really sticks out because my wife’s family has wide spread diabetes.
The pictures on the walls in doctors offices are so typical.  They seem to always be of some kind of stunning out door shot.  Just then I look up from the coffee table to take notice of a flowing water fall as it breaks the mountains edge.  At the base of this waterfall is a crystal clear little pond that has a bright sunlight with its yellowy orange reflection off the water. Across from this high spirited picture was another of the same setting.  A little wooden shack in the midst of the fall.  This picture had many bright colors do to the seasons leaf change.  It was like lead peeping without even having to go anywhere.  I think the doctors use these kinds of photos to uplift the spirits of the sick people waiting to see the doctor.
I think this is the best but can be the grossest part of the waiting room and that’s the little nook of children’s toys.  This little nook is freighted with toys almost competes with my spoiled sons room.  Right off the bat you notice the Hulk action figure that a previous kid left posing on the floor.  The floor of the nook is not the plain blue carpet like the rest of the room but is different color foam puzzle pieces.  It is incredibly organized with multiple bins filled up with boy and girl toys.  I never see kids in here playing with the toys but they are definetly weathered from being played with.  I couldn’t imagine being here when a child was there due to the fact they have a little drum and a key board to boot.
I finally after looking at the clock continuously the assistant comes out to call my name.  She almost blends in with the pale walls with her plain light blue scrub top with a gray bottom.  Of course she had a great big smile like she was happy to see another patient.  Maybe it was those uplifting photos getting to her.  I look again at the clock and am so happy after sitting there for a great amount of time listening to kiss 94.5.  Yeah, this concluded sitting in this room but I know what is to come, another room with pictures and magazines.  Same plain walls and doing the same thing, waiting so I can get my problem taken care of.

1 comment:

  1. My doctor's office sports a Bible as well as all those magazines you mention, and I try to find the gloomiest sections as I wait, gloomy to match my mood--all the stuff about God smiting the wicked, leprosy, abominations before the Lord, and so on.

    I hate going to the doc's and this piece helps remind me why--the crappy furniture, the uplifting pictures, the worn but unused toys, the magazines, the cheery smiles. You do a great job on both very specific, well-observed details and then with commentary about the details. No argument here.

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