Remember to vote!!!! (also, a rant about common courtesy)

The main point of this blog today is to remind everyone to GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!! I'm not going to lecture on who to vote for, but if you're informed on the issues and care about your country, brave the lines at the polls and do it. That is, of course, if you haven't voted early, which I wish I'd have taken advantage of. Or I wish I'd at least sent in my absentee ballot, but that would have been far too convenient. LOL. So I'll be out there in a few hours, and I hope to see you there!

Great video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vtHwWReGU0

The secondary part of this blog is to ask a question about common courtesy in the doctor's office waiting room. I am of the mindset that when you're in close quarters to other people, especially strangers, you try not to disturb them by talking loudly on your cell phone or to your child/grandchild or even to the receptionist. Obviously, you can talk, but you try to keep it quiet, and generally stay off the phone. In fact, most doctors' offices have a sign requesting you turn off your cell when you come in.

Apparently, this lesson was not taught to everyone, which surprises me. Of course, I'm generally surprised by the rudeness of others when I'm out in public. I'm not sure if it's because I've worked at home for 4 1/2 years, so I'm not out and about every day, or if it's that I'm just really intolerant or what.

I was at my orthopedic doctor yesterday to have a cortizone injection in my knee, which has been swollen and painful six months for no real good reason (according to the MRI). I'm sitting there trying not to concentrate on the giant needle that's going to be jabbed into my knee, so I was reading a fairly old article in Newsweek about Barack Obama. All was quiet, even though there were three other people in the waiting room with me.

After about 10 minutes, a man walked in. Actually, I heard him long before he walked in. The windows were open, and as he pulled up in his giant truck, even before he parked, I heard the guy talking. How flipping loud do you have to be so that people inside a building can hear you talking over the roar of your big truck AND the radio? Seriously.

So he walked in, yammering the whole time, and I noticed he had a child with him. No biggie generally. He starts talking to her, and I swear, he either had a hearing problem or a vision problem, because he either thought he was quiet or thought she was about 10 miles away and he had to shout.

He tells her to grab a magazine and they'll read it together. Awesome. Nothing like narrating a magazine article when there are others around you trying to read. Very considerate. After several minutes of very loud conversation between the two, his cell phone rings. He answers it, and is now having a loud conversation with whoever called. I could picture this person on the other end of the phone setting it on their kitchen counter and walking about 10 feet from it just so his or her eardrums didn't burst from the sheer volume of this guy's voice.

While he's having this conversation, his child/grandchild, who clearly learned her manners from him, starts blowing raspberries and whooping in this very high-pitched, very annoying, ear-splitting tone. I know he heard her, because he looked at her, but he said NOTHING to her to tell her to quiet down. This went on for about three minutes. He's yelling, she's "singing" or whatever, and I'm about ready to smack them both.

Luckily, the nurse came out at that point and put me in a room far, far away from these two, because I was about to snap. When did this become okay? Is there no common courtesy anymore in this world? Jesus.