Hurry Up and Wait

Doesn't it seem like whenever you're running late, you either get stuck in a traffic jam, at a railroad crossing or hit multiple red lights? When you're not in a rush none of those things happen, right? Yesterday, I had an appointment to get a routine echocardiogram (echo) of my heart at my cardiologist's office that started at 10:45 a.m. I left my house at 10:25 a.m. thinking that would be plenty of time with about a five minute "cushion." Well, I managed to hit at least five red lights in a row! I pulled into the parking lot and rushed quickly into the building. The receptionist gave me a sheet on a clipboard, which I hurriedly filled out thinking I would be going in soon - they typically run pretty close to being on time. Well, they were running a full 30 minutes behind. When I got called into the exam room, the nurse took my blood pressure and said something like, "is your blood pressure normally this low??" Hmm, not usually, guess I relaxed a little too much in the waiting room!  Since she was having issues getting some images of the left part of my heart, it took a little longer than normal.  At one point, she even remarked, "don't worry, I'm not going to call the doctor in!" Okay, that was good to hear :) After I was done, it was on to another "to do" thing on my list.  I headed to Meijer next to pay my credit card bill.  Since there was only one person in front of me in line at the customer service, I figured I would be done in no time. Nope, there was only one clerk and he was having some issues with a transaction he was doing for the person at the counter.  Eventually, another clerk came over and the dude in front of me went up to the counter.  After ringing up his order, he realized he didn't have the money to pay for it, so he left.  It was my turn then and I got done in less than 60 seconds.  The hubby had told me about a great deal on strawberries, so I grabbed three packs and a few other items I needed and headed towards the registers. I was hoping the "express lane" was open because I only had about 8-10 items.  Nope, no express lane was open.  I did a quick survey of the lanes and how long the lines were and got into a line that had one person. Since the lady already had all of her items on the conveyer belt, I figured it would be quick, so I unloaded my items onto the belt.  Nope, the gal in front of  me was purchasing about 15 gift cards in addition to her groceries. I could have gotten out of the line, but somebody got behind me and started unloading her items.  After what seemed like forever, the lady in front of me was finally done.  Once I hit the register, I was done in about three minutes.  Next and final stop before going home for lunch was the bank.  I got behind a car in line thinking he was almost done. Nope, he took about five minutes horsing around in his car before finally putting the tube in the chute and sending it to the teller!  When I finally pulled up, the teller said, "it will be just a minute!" She apologized about three times for how long I had to wait and when she sent the tube back, she said, "oh, I gave you some Hershey Kisses candy, just because!" Cool.  The next few hours were spent doing laundry - another "hurry up and wait" type item. Since I had a meeting at my church that started at 6:30 p.m., I wanted to get dinner prepared a head of time and gave the hubby and Lauren instructions about what time to put things in the oven, etc.  I guess the clocks in our house are slow, because I was thinking it was 6:20 p.m. when I was leaving my house, instead it was 6:25 p.m.! I didn't rush because the way I take to our church sometimes has deer that like to hop across the road, that would have been all I needed was to hit a deer! Anyways, I pulled into the parking lot and ran inside to my meeting. It was about 6:32 p.m., and these meetings usually start right on time.  Whew, I wasn't the last one to arrive (thank goodness) and the meeting didn't get started until another ten minutes later. This was the only time out of my whole day I was actually glad I had to wait :) The meeting couldn't start without me anyways, I take the notes!