Waiting rooms

Recently, I think of things I could write about pop into my head throughout the day, Then, when I sit down to write after dinner... Nothing. I can think about the laundry I've done, the bills I've paid, the dishes I've washed, but none of those things are terribly interesting and everyone does them. I'm pretty sure no one really wants to read about those things, either. I'm beginning to wonder if I need to start keeping a running list of possible blog topics.

Today I do have something to write about because we did something a typical. It was H. and Y.'s annual neurology appointment. It still feels so fantastic to be back home within an hour of the appointment start time. Today that was even with a blood draw added in. This is so much better than when we were driving an hour and a half one way and had to stop for lunch on our way home. 

The appointment was quick and easy and we don't need to go back for a year. After needing to go every three to six months this is still feeling a little miraculous. Plus I like the neurologist, which as you all know, is not always a given. 

When I go to doctor's appointments I usually take knitting with me. I'll sit and knit in waiting rooms and do some people watching as well. Waiting room behavior has changed. It actually changed a long time ago, but I was very much aware of it today for some reason. I'm the outpatient lab I realized that I (and H. who was reading and R. who was watching me knit) were the only ones who were not staring at a phone. This includes people who were possibly thirty years older than I am. It's as though we have all collectively forgotten how to pass time without immediately defaulting to our phones. I also realized that waiting rooms no longer have magazines. The whole thing just struck me as odd and a little unnerving. 

Part of this is because our brains actually need boredom. There are all sorts of good reasons why letting our minds wander without giving them outside input is healthy. Yet we as a collective society seems to have forgotten how to be bored, filling every extra second with social media or games or whatever is is people look at on their phones. I'm not sure there is a better place to practice boredom than a medical waiting room. 

I'm going to offer you the challenge I have been trying to do myself: be aware of those odd moments where you habitually pull out your phone and put the phone back instead. Give doing nothing a try instead. The world won't end and you might feel better as a result.