I was sitting in the waiting room doing exactly what you do in waiting rooms...waiting, and enjoying my favorite pastime...people watching. I do this at the mall, at work, at WalMart, everywhere, and as I'm watching, I wonder. Wonder what their life story is, wondering if they're married, do they have kids, what do they do for a living, what are they doing here? When you're in a public place that's a question that seems very logical to ask, but where I was I knew what they were doing there...the same thing I was doing. I noticed people on this day, but I was drawn to their faces this time more than anything. Mostly I was just looking for confirmation that they were okay. Some were smiling, some were stone faced, some had tears in their eyes. Just as I had suspected. Then there was me. I had just gotten off work and drove as fast as I could to my desired location. I was tired, but excited. I was nervous, but excited. I was sad, but excited. It was very cold outside, but for some reason I was sweating - mainly under my armpits. My hair had gone from curled and in place that morning to on top of my head in a messy ponytail. Most of my makeup had disappeared and I slapped on some lip gloss to try to cover up the faded lipstick. I was far from looking great, but I didn't care. In just a few minutes I would be face to face (sort of ) with the one thing that brought me utter joy and would ultimately get me through until I returned here again.
I walked up to the door and read the signed posted. This is one place where I didn't want to break ANY rules. The sign said, "Check in at the front desk, okay...Have your ID ready to present when you arrive at the counter...okay, Must be a registered guest...okay, No cell phones allowed," ohhh. Well mine is on silent, I bet that's okay. Then I kept reading, "Failure to abide by said rules could ban you from any future visits." Well crap! I then decided that even though it was cold outside it would be best for me to make the walk back to my car and put the cell phone up. So I did.
I finally made my way into the building. It was actually more pleasant inside than I thought it would be. However, I would have liked for the décor to be a bit more welcoming and the furniture to be a little nicer, maybe a throw rug here or there, but overall it was what it was. There was concrete, lots and lots of concrete. After checking out my surroundings I made my way to the counter with ID in hand just as the posting had required. There was a think piece of glass between myself and the clerk and a little opening at the bottom between the glass and counter. Like the rookie I was I bent down to the opening and told her my name. She kind of smiled at me and then asked for my license. It was at that moment I realized that the glass wasn't sound proof. I could hear her and she could hear me just fine, so I stood up straight and handed her my ID. She wrote something down and handed me my license and a Saniwipe with the number 12 on it. A Saniwipe?????? What is that for? 12??? What does that mean???? In all my confusion I took it from her and she told me to have a seat. So off to the couch I went. I was joined there by an elderly lady and a teenage girl. I'm assuming it was grandmother and granddaughter. I wasn't purposely eaves dropping, but we were in very close quarters and with concrete surrounding us we didn't have a very good sound barrier in the room. I heard everything. Grandma asked, "did you bring your report card?" Granddaughter replied, "YES!" You could hear the excitement in her voice. I was proud of her, she obviously had done very well! A minute or two later a middle aged woman came in with 5 kids, yes, 5. They were bouncing off the walls, laughing, playing with each other, joking around and seemed to be okay with the being in the building that they had just walked into. I wondered if they had been here a time or two before. Momma on the other hand looked exhausted and I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her. I wondered what her day had been like. Like me, did she just get off work, but unlike me did she also have to stop and collect all these kids on the way here. That journey alone would've gotten my hair from done and down to on the top of my head. They followed the process like we all had and made their way to the couch as well.
I continued to keep my eye on the time and continued to be anxious and excited as the minutes went by. I also continued to watch those that came through the door. Our next guest was a younger woman and man who were both dressed to the nines. Hair was in order, clothes were ironed, make up and lipstick was fresh just as mine had been that morning and everything was perfect down to the designer bag she was carrying. However, she must not have read all the postings on the door or perhaps she didn't care because as she approached the desk she was turning down her phone. Not sure if that was a brave move or a really stupid one. I guess if I don't run into her again here we will know.
Tick tock it was finally time. A group of people started coming through this area that divided us by a yep, you guessed it...a concrete wall and out the door they went. When the crowd seemed to be thinning out I got up and made my way to the wall. There I saw lots of chairs in a row. There were about 10 on each side and they were facing screens. Each little cubby was numbered and it was then that I realized why the clerk had written the number 12 on my Saniwipe. Twelve was my cubby. I arrived and sat down and again starting investigation my surroundings. There were more rules above the screen and a phone on the right side of my chair. And it was then that I figured out what the Saniwipe was for and oh my gosh I was so thankful for that Saniwipe. Forget the instructions for now, let's get to the disinfecting. I began to wipe that phone down like no other phone had ever been wiped down. Over and over and over again until my little Saniwipe was dried out. Shoot, if only I could've got one more good wipe all over the phone. Oh well, I guess if my ear falls off from whatever I catch by talking on this phone then I just wasn't meant to live the remainder of my life with that ear. Okay, not that's done let's look at these rules. 1) Do not place feet on walls. What? Really? I wonder what goof sat on the phone with their feet on the wall that made that rule have to be written. I feel dumber just reading something like that! Onto the next one, 2) Pick up phone. Again, really? 3) Place phone on counter. Okay, that one I wouldn't have guessed so I'm glad they specified to pick it up and then lay it down. I would've done this thing completely backwards had that not been in writing. However, had I known I was going to have to lay my phone on the counter I would've wiped down the counter as well with my one piddly Saniwipe. It kind of seems that all my efforts in disinfecting the phone were all for not at this point. Back to the rules...4) When inmate appears on screen, pick up phone and begin talking. Whoa!!! That word. I couldn't get passed that word, "inmate." I just felt like I was gutpunched and I could not stop staring at that word. That is a word that I would NEVER have used to describe the person I was here to see. That's the word we use to describe bad people, disobedient people, people that belong to other families, but never had I ever thought I would use that word to describe someone I loved with all my heart and soul. But there it was and there I was sitting in a concrete cubby with a now semi-disinfected phone lying on the counter and I was waiting for my inmate to appear...my son.
