Shelby's Life and Whatnot

Rude Receptionists

Had another doctor appointment today--everyone and their uncle wants to see me before I leave.

Anyway, I left in plenty of time, but there was a huge, and I mean huge traffic backup. It went on for miles. We sat and crawled along, agonizingly. When I finally reached the accident I realized why there was such a backup. It was a gravel truck, completely overturned, straddling the center divide! The cab was on our side of the freeway with the load on the other side. There had obviously been a very large fire which was out by the time I got there. There were at least 5 flatbed tow trucks sitting around and I kept wondering "how are they going to get that thing off of there?"

Anyway, after this fascinating accident and an unpleasant encounter with a very rude and incompetent SUV driver, I arrived at my appointment 45 minutes late. It didn't help that when I got there, they had just closed the parking garage and rerouted us to the employee garage (the only bonus there was that it was free).

So I finally made it to the office 45 minutes late and met the world's snootiest receptionist. I really like this doctor, but the office staff are horrible. She made this big deal of saying loudly "You're 45 minutes late!!!" (heads turned). I tried to explain that there was a traffic accident and she actually got up out of her chair and walked away in the middle of my explanation, while I was still talking. She then made this big old deal about "I don't know if the doctor can even see you, with you being 45 minutes late" and wandered the office for 5 minutes trying to find a nurse to ask if the doctor could still see me.

Finally she said "well I'll check you in but don't be surprised if you're not seen." So she checks me in, and I'm sitting in the waiting room, and right in front of me she goes to one of the other office clerks and says "there's a patient who's 45 minutes late. She says there was an accident on the freeway." The other staff member snorted and shook her head with that "accident my ass" look. They both had a little chuckle.

Then, after sitting there for about 3 minutes, someone comes out and gives me a room. About 5 minutes after that, the doctor showed up. Well, I guess he was able to see me after all! The doctor was very nice, as usual, and took his time answering my questions. It put me in a much better mood.

You know, it doesn't take any more effort to be polite and respectful to someone. Why are you working in customer service if you hate people so much? Grrrrrrr.

As far as the accident, by the time I made it back to the scene the traffic had cleared up although the left two lanes were still closed. Amazingly they had gotten the truck off of the wall and the whole thing was sitting in the northbound side. Amazing. I looked for news of the accident but found nothing. Too bad, it would have made some great pictures.