When in public, I try to follow the old "mind your own business" approach.  But, I'll admit, that from time to time I find myself engrossed in the conversations of others.  The kind that don't include me.  This week I found myself sitting in the prime spot for eavesdropping - the surgical waiting room.  Pairs of people chatting, sitting around for hours with nothing to do, their conversations flow to pass the time, then extend past the walls through cell phones in every hand.  It's a loud place, and frankly it's difficult to concentrate on reading even the fluffiest of magazines when so much is going on around me.  I found myself listening with interest to the dramas of people I don't know.  Bits and pieces of different stories began to flow together...

"And so my point is that the kids shouldn't HAVE any input on it."

"And I could change the look of the whole ROOM just by replacing the SLIPCOVERS"

"I don't know what it is, I call it the roto-rooter surgery but it's on his back and I don't know why I call it that.  ANYway, he's fine.  No, you don't have to come down here unless you want to have lunch and if you do you can just pick me up out front I'll be out there in five minutes."

"But you're not Jackie - where did she go?  What do you mean there wasn't a Jackie here with Martin, I wrote it down right here that his wife's name is JACKIE and she's wearing a black shirt.  Sure I see that you have a black shirt on and I hear you that your name is Jennie.  Sometimes you go by Jackie?  Oh, that must be it.  You must have told me Jackie.  Thanks, Jackie!"

"So, all the parts have been swapped and everything should be secure.  He's like the bionic man now"
(that last conversation was mine)



Conversations overheard from hospital beds are much longer, go into a lot of detail, and the dynamics of the people talking become clear in a very short period of time.  This conversation in two parts:

MRS: I threw up and there was blood in there.
DR: I think we'll keep you overnight and find out where the bleeding is coming from.  It's nothing to worry about, we just want to figure it out before we send you home.
MRS: Thanks, Doc.

MRS: Well, they're going to keep me for a few days.  Probably in the ICU.
MR: Okay.
MRS: It's probably something very serious.  They're going to bring a specialist in here.
MR: Ya know, I just went to the bathroom and all the sudden I threw up all over.  I wonder if maybe we have food poisoning.
MRS: Well, maybe you do.  Turn the channel there for me, will ya?



Even though the view from this room has been a good one, and the conversations around me have filled the hours with distraction, I'm ready to be home where the conversations I'll overhear will all start with "THAT'S MINE" and end with "MOM!!"