God's Waiting Room!

​Cell phones are great, you have all the information and entertainment you could possibly need right at your fingertips! It has, however, come to my attention that people no longer have boundaries about when and where it is appropriate to be having a personal conversation on their cell phone. I started noticing it more and more frequently at the grocery store. Depending on what part of Phoenix I was in, sometimes it was like watching Jerry Springer! At least in a store I can walk away. Lately I’ve been spending an extensive amount of time in waiting rooms and that’s where it really gets under my skin.
I go to a retinal specialist for my eyes (yay diabetes!) and this process can take up to 3 hours, 2 if I’m lucky. It’s broken into 2 steps, so it’s not like I can call up and ask how late they’re running. First, you get your eyes dilated and do some basic tests and whatnot. Then you go back into the waiting room and wait until it’s your turn to see the doctor. Don’t ask me why it’s this way. It wasn’t when I saw my doctor in Florida and my insurance has like 2 doctors per specific field that I can go to, so I don’t have a lot of options. I also like the staff at this place. And it’s not super far from home.
The waiting room has 20 to 25 chairs, I’ve never actually counted. It can get packed in there! A good percentage bring a companion who stay the whole time. Sometimes there’s only a couple of seats open and I’ve even had to stand for a few minutes until someone gets called in.
There’s a television on one wall that is most often set to a channel that plays shows like Monk and MacGuyver. Not something I’d watch at home, but it helps the time go by and it also means that most of the room is quietly watching, with the exception of anyone talking to the person next to them, but that doesn’t happen a ton.
If you were sitting in a quiet, crowded waiting room, do you think that’s an appropriate time to take a call?? If you said yes to this question…I hope you stub your toe and it makes you cry! It’s so rude and obnoxious! I know it’s summer in Phoenix, but seriously, go outside! Even if you think you’re being quiet, I assure you, you’re not! We can all hear every word! Last week was especially frustrating because she was directly behind me, not even trying to use a hushed tone and I was far from the tv, so it made trying to watch frustrating. Someone finally did get up, so I gathered my things in a huff, turned and glared at her for a solid 10 seconds, hoping she’d take the hint, and sat in the newly vacated seat.
Just kidding. I’m so non-confrontational. What I did instead was sit there glancing at the empty seat, thinking about moving, but hoping she’d end her call at any moment, because who could possibly be so oblivious to the fact that they’re being a nuisance to everyone around them. I also didn’t want to move
I have had a lot of time to think about my fantasy reaction to situations like this because it happens way more often than it should. My dream is to ask someone to call me so I can have the following aggressively loud conversation:
“Hello?...Oh, hey! How are you?... I’m just in a doctor’s office waiting room, I can talk…Oh, really? You think it would be rude to take a call right now?...You know what, you’re right, I’ll call you back when it’s more appropriate.”
Then I’d hang up and stare at the offender until they got the hint and I’d be met with a round of applause!
Not really.
Maybe one day though…I’ll keep you posted 😉