Ugh.

I am very tired. Turns out when you work at a shelter during the holidays, you can get a lot of phone calls. Also donations. I'm not going to say it burnt me out on Christmas, but I am very tired. It definitely made my personal Christmas prep seem like nothing in comparison to the to-do list to prep for work.

"It's Really Busy Tonight For Some Reason" and other lies

So I got to go to Urgent Care tonight because I needed to get a prescription refilled and... well, it's a long story and frankly none of your business. So butt out. But when I got there, the guy was all, "oh, it's a really long wait tonight for some reason," as though normally he could have slipped me right in, but people were just feeling extraordinarily sick or something this evening. I half expected him to then start talking about the latest outbreak of the flu, or how something really nasty was going around... but he didn't. And as I sat for like an hour in the waiting room, and then for half an hour or so in the little room they put you in to wait to make you feel like something is happening even though you're not anywhere near seeing the doctor still, I thought to myself, this is always how both nurse- and patient-friends of mine describe it when they have to go to urgent care or the emergency room (or work there). I'm sure there are slow times, but I never hear, "they just whipped us right back and wrote a prescription and we were done in 20 minutes!" That would be why one family went across the street, got Teriyaki, and proceeded to turn one of the tables into their family dinner table. (Toddler saying YUM! loudly after every bite=precious! Reminds me of Little Brother, who also loudly expresses approval, like at my birthday dinner when he kept yelling something along the lines of, "I like this pizza!")

So what other lies do people tell that are fun like the waiting room lie?

1. "I'm on a diet," to the little Camp Fire kid they can't just say no alone to when they pass them outside the store trying to sell their mints. Also "I'm diabetic."

2. "I'm sorry, I have no cash on me," said to the homeless person they are certain will buy alcohol (which perhaps is a justifiable theory, especially if said person is weaving or slurring, or smells like a brewery. I advocate giving food or contributing to your local shelter. In other words, just call me. I like donations. :) )

3. "I have a pre-pay policy for cleaning," said by the despicable dry cleaner guy near our shelter who totally profiled my friend, who is African-American, so he assumed she was most likely homeless or just not good for the money. We asked other people if they had used them, and found that his policy changed for people of different... appearances. She is going elsewhere. We don't like him. That is putting it mildly.

4. "The owner just dropped the prize on this unit." The statement I got from almost every unit I looked at when I was moving. It's possible it was sometimes true, but it sounded more like a sales pitch, because, shoot, if you're offering me a deal, I better snatch it up!

What else am I missing?