Comfortable Chairs and Growling Stomachs

 

Comfortable Chairs and Growling Stomachs

Noel Laflin

11-29-22

Sitting in the comfortable phlebotomy chair this morning, stomach growling due to my long fast, and watching Jesse scroll through the computer as he double-checked which colored tubes to draw, I told him that I used to work for this lab – well, a company by another name way back when, but still pretty closely related to the outfit I once represented.

Turns out I worked for the company longer than he’s been alive.  No surprise there as most folks I meet nowadays are so much younger.  And also surprisingly, that’s okay by me nowadays also, as too many of my generation seem to think the kids of today just aren’t up to speed for day-to-day living, let alone saving the planet.  But I think they are capable of both.

But, I digress, as usual. So, back to the comfortable chair and my growling stomach.  

I wanted to mention to the young man that the padded barber-type chair, upon which I was awaiting his due diligence, was also nice, beating out the old plastic primary school-variety patients once had to maneuver in to.  And computers sure had an edge over phone calls to superiors when a particular tube was in question, or to double-check on one’s insurance status. And that this was still a fine draw location, uncrowded and slightly off the radar (but close to my house), one my pal Zia secured long ago – back when Jesse was still in the fifth grade, no doubt.

I decided that these observations would just be meaningless meandering musings on my part, an older fellow now free of laboratory obligations other than being a patient in a comfortable chair. The unsaid observations would play no role in the boy’s day-to-day job description.

But what he might have lacked in years, he made up for in expertise, as the blood draw was painless. So I did tell him that when we had completed our brief time together.

And best of all, when I got in my car, I had no other doctor’s office or lab to rush off to, just a short drive home, where a fine breakfast awaited my ever-growling stomach.