Waiting

I haven't left the house much over the last 2 weeks or so, but when I have, it has mostly been to sit in waiting rooms. Or rather, while that isn't why I have left the house, it is the thing I have spent the most time doing while out.

I think waiting rooms are what may have originally inspired the idea of purgatory. Or perhaps it goes the other way around. I'm not sure, never having been to purgatory, which is the original and which the imitation.

Today I was pleasantly surprised by the waiting room (more of a hallway really) at the Department of Vital Statistics where we went to get Emerson officially and legally born in the state of California. It was actually a much nicer place than most of the doctor's offices we've spent time sitting in lately. I was expecting grime, crazy people and an outrageous wait and was disappointed on all three counts. Not bad, City of San Francisco. Perhaps the DMV would benefit from a visit.

One doctor's office waiting room we briefly inhabited last week had a sizeable aquarium installed right in the middle of the room. Good effort, I say, though a little maintenance would go a long way. The glass looked dirty and the water was cloudy, though Eric was convinced it was just "really aerated" not actually full of grossness. Also, as far as I could tell it only had one fish in it. There may have been more in there hiding in the huge coral (maybe they're nocturnal?) but if you can't see them, they don't count.

We like our pediatrician's office because he has a teeny waiting room that you never actually wait in. He has enough exam rooms (or few enough patients, or both) that you are shown directly into one upon arrival...and then that's where they keep you waiting 35 minutes past your appointment time before you see the doctor.

Apparently you can take the room out of the waiting room, but you can't take out the waiting.