Surreal Experiences At The Hospital

I had some delightful times at the hospital today. I was there to visit a friend and thought I might be staying all night. (And, no, don't panic it wasn't the Pink Professor. I haven't worn him out yet to the point that he's needed medical attention. Remember, he's not allowing me to kiss and tell, so I won't be saying more about that at this time. Except that he's completely fine and expected to pull through anything I engage him in.) This was a different friend.

Right off the bat I know what you're thinking, what a generous and loving spirit I must be to go to the hospital to spend a night in the room of a friend. Thank you, it's all true. But something happened before I could complete this good deed: They dismissed him.

But what I wanted to write about were the delightful times I spent in the hospital, just walking through the lobby, being in the elevators, etc.

It was truly a surreal feeling to me to be standing there (at times) with the whole crowd of strangers going every which way around and past me. I felt simultaneously the sensation of being the center of everything as well as the person no one noticed. The fact that people were going at many angles past me in this fairly large lobby added to the sensation.

Going in and going back out it was about the same. I had a big old suitcase and a briefcase as well. I was wondering if anyone felt the least bit suspicious that a guy was walking in there with his wardrobe like that, but with patients checking in they're probably used to it.

I'm hardly ever out in public with a suitcase, and certainly not that conspicuously. Usually when I pack a suitcase, it goes from the car to a motel and no one notices. But in this case there I was, maybe looking something like an orphan looking up at the big buildings, I don't know. I definitely got this feeling of what you'd look like in a movie in a situation like that. The lyrics "All the lonely people" came to me.

The suitcase I had jam packed too. So it must've been 80 pounds or something. And this after I bowled eight games the other day, doing some damage to my hand which already has some arthritis. I sat the suitcase down while waiting for an elevator and looked at my hand, which was beet red.

Then, speaking of the elevator, I got on and I was immediately surrounded by seven young women, all in white lab coats. Me, this average looking guy, with a big suitcase and a briefcase, in an average sweatshirt, and all these white lab coats. I thought about saying, "If worse came to worse, would any of you be able to save my life?" But I kept it to myself, since I looked suspicious enough.

When I was getting ready to go for the day, I felt the same thing. I actually took my suitcase and briefcase down to the lobby and made my way to the parking garage, then went back up to his room. The sensation was still there when I walked through the place without the cases. It was a fascinating feeling!