Tuesday, January 15, 2013

New Places - Day 2

Oh no. Oh no.

I repeated this to myself as I groggily opened my eyes. There's nothing like feeling yucky and realizing you have a thousand things to get done for the day.

Among all the other duties, one stuck out to me - what am I going to write about today? I mean, I'm not exactly in prime condition to go out and find myself a nice new adventure. No thank you, I think I'll pass.

But at the same time, I committed to going somewhere new every day for the next week. And today would mark only the 2nd day. Oy.

Well, lucky me, I got to drive to wall mart tonight to pick up a prescription. Which, in and of itself was a bit of an adventure. I can't say I've ever picked up a prescription from there before. And I'm not exactly fond of pharmacys. They kind of creep me out to be honest.

As I waited in line, I thought about possibly writing of the pharmacy. So I began to soak in all the little details that I could. Thankfully they were going pretty slow.

I stood there awkwardly. I'm actually pretty good at this, I have to say. I do it often.

   There was a woman in front of me. No, she wasn't standing like I was. She was rather large, sitting in one of those motorized shopping carts my mom used to tell me not to touch when I was young. The back of the seat had some fabric with painted tire treads. Strange, I know.

She wore a large hat. She owned a very large purse. And when she spoke, her voice was very large as well.

As I was taking this all in - the whole thing - a man turned and looked at me. He was in another one of those motor carts, parked right next to the woman. He was quite the opposite though. He was very skinny. Even his cart was smaller it seemed. And he didn't have a purse.

They were both older, I'd say in their 60s or so. But I'm kind of bad at estimating ages.

He looked at me for a substantially long time while the woman continued to talk to him in a seriously loud tone.

I was slightly uncomfortable.

So rather than staring back at him with a goofy look on my face (this was a tempting thing to do) I began observing the isle I was standing in.

Ewe, I really don't like pharmacys.

There were rows and rows of neatly displayed bottles and boxes. Not the kinds of bottles and boxes I'd prefer. You know, bottles of root beer and boxes of animal crackers? No, just a bunch of medications, pills, supplements, eye drops and awkward pregnancy tests. Rows of accumulated remedies for weird bodily functions.

Everything was clean... too clean. It was like someone with an official looking badge on their chest dowsed the place with Lysol.

There were also hexagonal-shaped boxes filled with different kinds of 'necessities' like Carmex lip balm and Pepto Bismol. They were so neatly displayed that I couldn't even bring myself to dink around and touch the chap stick in the box.

Why was I so bothered by this place? I mean, I see this kind of stuff every now and then. Yes, I'll admit I've even had to take things like Pepto Bismol. I'm sure you have too. But maybe it was because it was all accumulated in one place. It all reminded me of sickness. It's crazy to me how much our country deals with disease and bad living habits.

When I looked straight ahead, I saw behind the counter. There were rows and rows and ROWS of prescriptions that had been filled and were waiting to be picked up. My goodness, are there really that many people on their way to grab yet another medication?

How many people just in America alone live day to day having to pop another pill or three?

These thoughts were overwhelming. And the longer that time went on, I kind of wanted to yell "Let's all just go eat our vegetables!!"

But I didn't.

When it was finally my turn and the motorized customers zoomed away, I tentatively walked up to the lady at the counter. She looked flustered and stressed, so I did my best to be kind. I even made her giggle a little when I made fun of myself for not remembering my pin number. Score!

Right after I paid and was eagerly turning to leave, the lady told me to wait.

Oh no! She is going to stuff me in a chair in the back and shove medicated syrup down my throat as punishment for not liking the pharmacy!

"We just have to go over your prescription with you over at the window over there. Just to explain how to use it."

Oh.. I guess that isn't so bad.

I was greeted at the window - wait no, I wasn't greeted, I was looked at - by a very tall man with a pure white mustache.

     "Have you taken this before?" His voice was so monotone.

"Uh, no."

      "Take one pill every four to six hours with water."

"Okay, thank you."

Really? I couldn't have just read the bottle? Oh well, at least I got to encounter a bright white mustache.

And then the moment came. I was free. Free I tell you, free!!

I don't want to ever have to go back there.

          I'm sorry if that's not very nice.





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