march 5, 2003
Is everyone turning into caricatures, or is it just me?
I went to the doctor's today, and as per usual I had to wait an entire hour for them to get to me. Normally I couldn't care less how long I have to wait because I usually find something interesting to read, even if their collection consists of children books about Jesus. (They actually have plenty of ancient Reader's Digests and an aquarium, so I was all set). But not today. My appointment was at 11am, which conflicted with my sleeping time, so my eyes were all bloodshot and I could barely make coherent sentences. Okay, it wasn't that bad, but waiting an hour on top of all that didn't help things. Neither did their bright mauve walls. There was this one lady who was really old, and French, (Quebecois French), and had what I would call a "dyke haircut." You know, the type you only see on stereotypical androgynous lesbians. She really reminded me of Il Dottore, a commedia dell arte character. He's this quack doctor who has no idea what he's talking about and who walks around pushing out his big tummy. This lady even talked the way Dottore speaks. Gah.
Then there was another lady who kept on being all melodramatic in just about anything that she did. She was with her mother, a quiet type, and when they walked in she was throwing her arms everywhere as if she was in an Oscar Wilde play. Later on when they were waiting, she readjusted her knee-high pantyhose, but not only that it was done in this really huge and cartoonish manner, so it completely threw me off and I almost woke up. And then a little while later, after she and her mum had gone in, she came out and cried out "Mother.." in this extremely loud and heartbroken voice, that was dripping with melodrama, even though her mum wasn't there and she was really just talking to oh I dunno, the walls. Everyone stared at her after that.
Then there was the mother with her little daughter. When they first came in they were all bright and happy and you could really tell that the mum was a good parent simply because of the devotion she gave to her child, and while they were waiting they played with the Lego that was in the corner, for the kids, and all was good, but after they went in and came out, the kid was crying - not the "I'm a whiny brat and I like to cry" crying, the "something bad just happened" crying. The mother was obviously distraught too, and she could barely keep herself together to re-assemble their kid stroller. What the fuck happened?!?!
Anyways, my visit with the doc was really brief - she asked about school at one point and I told her, and she was all like "Oh yeah, I can really see you going 'This is [kiddo], reporting from Ottawa' !" I was like uhh, riight.. thanks. I don't know why, but my doctor is really really strange. Why? Because she comes off as being the most put together, most normal person I've ever met, but by the end of your session, she sounds ridiculously bitter and seems to want you to die. Either that or I'm ridiculously deluded. Anyways.
