Emergency room with a view

People-watching can be educational and entertaining at the same time. Of course, it all depends where you plan to do the watching.
This morning, an unforeseen trip to the emergency room proved to provide a real experience.
First off, the trip was for a relative and they are OK.
So, that disclaimer is out of the way.
There are all sorts of people who visit the emergency room of the hospital. A lot of them don't need to be there and a lot of them do.
Also, there are a few who were visitors and more than likely will be back - only as patients, not visitors.
To me, if you can walk in, you really don't need the emergency room staff to care for you. Particularly if you barely limp because of a pulled muscle or something similar.
But with society today, and a lot of people without health insurance, the emergency room is the only place they know to go for help.
Besides, isn't that what Mitt Romney recommended a couple of weeks ago?
Oops, I digress. I am trying not to insert politics into the banter.
So ...
Taking a peek around the ER, my sister-in-law Linda and I were amazed - or maybe astonished is the better word - at the visitors.
There was a couple who were rather large. Well, I will say obese. They sat across from us.
Actually, he sat; she was lounging across a double seat, that is, a two seats with the dividing bar removed.
Not to be ugly, but at one time he was enjoying a double-size, double-glazed donut with a Mountain Dew chaser. She had a pack of Marlboros in her bag.
Granted, there could be a medical problem for them but his donut-Dew combo and her smokes don't lend the aura of a healthy lifestyle.
Linda and I were later joined by a man who seemed to be in his late 30s or early 40s and his young teen daughter. Out of all the literally dozens of seats in the waiting room, he sat next to Linda.
He was complaining to his daughter that he needed a new prescription because when he was in jail, they took his medicine and he didn't get it back.
Being a former inmate could explain why he chose to sit next to Linda. I felt lucky because there was an empty seat next to me, too.
To top off the morning, a young mom and her son who was about 3 or 4 decided to sit behind me.
Linda had already gone and I, like her, wondered why, out of all the chairs in all of the emergency room, did they pick behind me? Apologies to Rick Blaine, the owner of Rick's Cafe Americain.
The youngster was whiny and bratty. But then, just about any child would be whiny in the ER waiting room. Heck, a lot of adults are.
"If you don't behave, I'll pop you and take you to the truck," his mom said.
Later, she followed with, "You better sit down or you'll fall and bust your head. Then you'll have to go to the hospital and get stitches."
I had to pause after that one because I guess she never told the youngster he was already at the hospital.
But, before long, came the sound no one wants to hear. Accompanied by the usual request.
"Blec-c-c-c-hh!"
"Um, can someone bring a mop over here?"
Ah, life in the ER waiting room.