The People You Meet

Went to urgent care yesterday. I've been sick for going on a month, and even after the first batch of prescribed meds, I was only getting worse. I realized that when you spend an entire night trying to breathe, it's probably time to get some professional help.

Place opens at 10am, so I arrived around 10:15. There were already around 25 people in the room total, 15 of which were taking up space in line. I was drained from taking a shower and walking into the building (that whole breathing thing was real hard...) and I wanted more than anything to just sit down in one of the chairs, but knew I had to hold my spot in line or I'd regret it. About 15 minutes into my waiting though, some old lady decides to cut in line two people in front of me. WHAT THE HECK?! As Dominic would say, does she not know I'm a big deal? Ok, not really. But still, I don't care what the deal is, you do NOT cut in line.

When it was finally my turn I could barely talk to the guy at the counter. Not gonna lie, the fatigue of coughing 24/7 was starting to make me perpetually sleepy. After I paid more money to Kaiser (pretty sure I should own the place by now) I sat down in the back of the room near the entrance and observed. I've always found rooms full of strangers extremely interesting, and even in my sleep deprived and illness induced exhaustion I was intrigued by the dynamics taking place. Here's what I saw:

-husband and wife, wifey being the sick one. He's on his cell phone, and must pride himself on being an important fella because he never stopped calling people. She goes in to get checked out, and in an effort to avoid being bored or to fill whatever silence or additional noise made him uncomfortable, he repeatedly picked up his cell phone and called people, name dropping and talking about his fancy business. Praise the Lord he was on my deaf side.

-pregnant girl in her mid-20s knitting a blanket with bold, non-matching colors. I've never seen hands work that fast before. Older women and other mom's would try and make small talk to her, and after her polite replies she continued to knit and keep her head down, not wanting to invite too much conversation.

-mom, dad, little girl, all drinking sodas (at the doctor's....) Mom and Dad are sitting apart, and as soon as the mom goes in for her turn, the girl starts crying and asking for her mom. She too sits apart from her dad until mom comes back out and they all leave, the girl holding her mom's hand.

-older couple sitting next to another older lady, all three making ridiculous and pretty mundane jokes attempting to pass the time. Any kid they saw in line they'd try and make a cute little remark to, but no one was really biting. It was obviously too early, and strangers were just not interesting on this rainy morning.

-a mid-20's couple, probably dating, avoiding eye contact with anyone and everyone by keeping in serious conversation and their heads turned inward.

-a mom with her princess teenager, dressed to impress at the doctor's office. Probably junior/senior in high school. Mom does all the talking for the daughter, who sits and stares at everyone making several different facial expressions. Especially when the African American families walked in.

-The receptionist, who looks constantly annoyed and overworked. She never actually smiles, only flags people to her station by saying "yes ma'am/sir" and asks what their problem is today. No joke.

-mystery girl, with tattoos on her wrists and a hoodie on, but keeping the hood over her head the entire time, looking around nervously.

The whole time I'm waiting (which was a miserable hour) I would watch the reactions of the people sitting down. As soon as they had put in their two cents about the reason for their visit, the awkward moment arrived. Where to sit.... The families had the hardest time deciding, because with more people they had to find more empty spaces. A family of three needed to find a row of seven free chairs in order to sit down. Never mind that there were four next to a frightened young girl or near the pregnant gal knitting. Comments to people were only "excuse me" and "sorry" for having their legs and feet sticking out too far, and beyond the kids and cell phone man, most people kept their conversations whispered and hushed.

What happened? Why are people in public settings so paranoid about conversation? I'm not going to say that I'm the most outgoing person in new or unfamiliar environments, but when you're in the urgent care, chances are you're feeling lousy and everyone else there is too. Defenses should be pretty low at this point, so why waste the energy trying to avoid other people? Doesn't misery love company? You could at least complain to each other about your symptoms. Maybe play a "one-up" game and see who's the most sick. But the idea that people in general cannot talk to strangers is kinda sad. Not a new concept I know, especially in our part of the country.

Next time you're in a public place, especially one where you would typically avoid making eye contact with anyone or dismissing small chit-chat, surprise yourself and say hello to someone. Just to see their reaction. I tried it when I was leaving the doctor's, and I have to be honest, I felt slightly more......alive.