When I was young I ran into my friends at the beach, Steak and Shake (a drive-in back then), or the Movie theater. If I was trying to avoid a certain teacher it was inevitable they would be coming down the library steps as I was going up. The library was one sure place your parents would let you go after dinner, even if you had stayed home from school sick that day.
As a mom I encountered my friends at the park , dance class/tai Kwan do. or the pick-up line of cars before or after school. If I was trying to avoid the Class Mom who was always looking for volunteers, it was a given that she would get in line behind me at the grocery store. At least I could still buy what I needed for the bake sale before I went home.
Nowadays we rendezvous-vous in different places. The orthopedist 's waiting room is like the campus Student Union. I, as a post- op patient, am just leaving as my friend, a pre-op patient, is coming in. Two wives are comparing notes as one husband is going in one direction for X-rays and the other husband is being seated in an exam room. The doctor and his staff may be constrained by HIPAA rules on confidentiality but we patients are not.
The Physical Therapy room, mine is in the hospital, is large and open. Don't ask your therapist if your dentist's partner doing the same pulley exercise as you has had shoulder replacement surgery too, she can't say. But walk out to the parking lot at the same time, joined by the woman in the cute exercise outfit, and the next thing you know you are sharing post op stories over coffees at Starbucks,
The very physician I've been trying to avoid (I've just been too busy to schedule my annual mammogram) was going in the hospital side door as I was going out the other day. Looking preoccupied, I thought I had made it past her when she turned and called my name. "How are you and aren't I due to see you soon," she asks. "Well, I've been very busy with shoulder surgery and all...." I stammer, feeling very much like a sixteen year old who has skipped school standing on the library steps.
Some things never change.
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