(Originally posted on LiveJournal)
I’ve been overdue scheduling a follow-up doctor’s appointment. Back late in May, my (then) doctor changed the dosage level on one of my medication (the one for my blood sugar levels). Plus, I’d taken a sleep apnea test, and the results of that need to be discussed with my primary physician. The glitch in all this is that Kaiser initially messed up my COBRA coverage for two months (paid for, but Kaiser said I wasn’t a member), plus the fact that the doctor I’ve had the last three years is moving on, so I needed to get a new primary physician.
Anyway, I made the appointment yesterday with the new doctor, and told the appointment clerk that I expected blood tests would need to be done the week before the appointment, so the new doctor would have the latest readings. She put me in the system. I did the overnight fasting thing, and went to Kaiser’s lab this morning.
Now, in the last couple of years, I’ve spent some time in Kaiser waiting room, and I know that not everyone pays attention to the signs posted all over the place about No Cell Phones. I once watched a woman in the waiting room for an eye exam, sit down directly opposite a very large version of such signs and proceed to make several calls on her cell phone. I guess she really needed the eye exam.
Now, the lab I visited to day is immediately next door to one of their X-ray labs, and on a floor where other tests are run… with sensitive electronic instruments.
So, I’m standing in the line, waiting my turn with the check-in clerk, and the guy that comes in behind me is going on over his Bbluetooth in a rather loud, carrying voice. And my Rude-o-meter flashes on.
Usually, I just roll my eyes at these people who ignore the signs that are posted throughout all the Kaiser buildings. Today, however, being in a more mellow mood, I turned to the guy (he’d finished the call by now, by the way), and point out to him, that there, immediately in front of us beside the check-in clerks was a small version of the sign saying “No Cell Phones”. I did it pleasantly, with a smile.
I was then promptly treated to the worst case of Automatic Rudeness I’d encountered in a long time. He snapped back at me, “I have to work!” “While you’re getting hospital lab tests done?” I wondered. Instead, I replied, “Cell phones can disrupt equipment. We’re right next to an X-ray lab.” “And how do you know that?” snitted Mr. Politeness Incarnate. “Uh, I can read signs for one thing.” “Wow. You know all that about equipment! You can read signs. Say, I really liked that Mel Gibson movie, Signs. Did you see that too?”
By this time, it was my turn to speak to the clerk, so I left Mr. Can’t Keep His Mouth Shut behind, though he continued to mutter for a moment about “signs”.
Later, when I was leaving the building, it occured to me that I should have shot down his using the movie reference to snipe at me by saying, “Oh, sorry. I understand now. You. Can’t. Read!”
Why is it that people think that because they can’t see the equipment in question, it therefore doesn’t matter whether they use the cell phones in hospitals? Are they thinking that the walls are sufficient insolation for whatever discruption cell phone waves might create? Do they think that just because the airline prohibition of cell phone use on take-off and landing is a precaution, that it is completely unnecessary in hospitals?
That’s one thing. But the other was the guy’s automatic rudeness to my pointing out the Rules of the establishment we were in. Frankly, if the hospital wants to keep people from using cell phones simply to keep the noise level down, it remains their right to request it. They’re not obliged to give reasons for it. But I, of course, committed a great social infraction by intruding on his Sense of Entitlement by pointing out that he was not entitled to do what he wanted.
He obviously felt justified in sneering at me: what could I possibly know about anything? There I was, overweight, in casual clothes, un-made-up. Obviously, I knew nothing about anything. I was really, really tempted to answer his question about how I knew such things as cell phones affecting equipment by saying: “First, the hospital itself says so, and I’d think they’d know whether or not it was true. Secondly, I actually have a Master’s degree – what’s your highest level of education? Thirdly, I can read, and the signs request that people not use cell phones in the building, period. Fourth, I’ve spent 18 years doing research for the game show Jeopardy! which has included verifying scientific facts, including such things at the effects of cell phones. And lastly, I’m the daughter of an electrical engineer, and learned from my father far more about electronic interaction than you ever dreamed of. What are your credentials beyond rudeness?”
It would have been satisfying. But would have taken much more effort than the guy was worth.
So, I leave the parking structure after having my blood drawn. While I’m at the corner, waiting to make a left turn, a guy in an expensive vehicle (an Escalade, I believe), made a left turn onto the street I was on. One handed, because he was talking on a hand-held cell phone while driving!
The California law against holding a cell phone and talking on it while driving has only been in effect since July 1. But I suppose, because he’s driving a Cadillac, he thinks that he’s exempt from the rule.
How did these people acquire this sense of entitlement? What makes them think that they are the exception to the rules that are put in place for the benefit of everyone? And on top of that, where do they get the idea that rudeness is the way to respond to someone giving them a polite, friendly warning? (Seriously, I did not snit at the guy in the lab line. I just smiled and said “You’re not supposed to use cell phones in the building.”)
