Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The Waiting Room

Waiting rooms can be a bit awkward:  sitting next to or across from strangers, not sure where to look, avoiding eye contact.  We were "blessed" to be able to sit for an hour and a half in such a room this week. 

Seventh grade is a grade in which booster shots are needed, and since the new school year came up so quickly, of course I had to scramble to get San in for his shots.  Other seventh graders apparently were in the same boat.

This found us sitting together in said waiting room, San looking down, me looking around, but not looking in one place very long.

Then there was music.  We couldn't really place it, until one seventh grader suddenly picked up her purse.  She looked up and glanced around the room, only to see all of us staring at her.  Her eyes went back to her purse, her fingers fumbling with the zipper.  "Oh my gosh, the ZIPPER'S BROKEN," was her frantic cry as she worked to quickly silence the music.

Finally, the zipper budged.  She grabbed her phone, clicked the button, put the phone to her ear and walked out of the waiting room.  There was silence again.  But a quick glance around the room revealed knowing smiles, since we all at some time or another had been in this exact circumstance.

But the silence was again suddenly broken by a young male voice:

"All I gotta say is she is NOT my sister!"

Then peels of laughter.

And for that brief moment, all of us strangers enjoyed a small, shared moment.  It was adorable, fun, and relieved a lot of tension.

And it was something worth writing about.

4 comments:

carmilevy said...

What a great vignette of a great, everyday moment that all of us can relate to. I find it funny how things like cell phones have changed the tone of places like waiting rooms. Before we had them, all we had were yellowed, ripped magazines.

:)

Lifelong Learner said...

My seventh grader just gave me a look as if to say, "SHE has a cell phone, why can't I?" lol! It was such a funny moment, though. No drama from the girl, just completely genuine emotion. We had some nice conversations after that. :)

Manjit said...

Yes, many times I have to take my mother in law to hospital and have to wait for up to 1 hour.

Exactly the same feeling in there. But I never met anybody to break the silence. Next time I'll do it.

Thanks

Lifelong Learner said...

Let us know what happens when you do! :)