Waking Up Alive is Wonderful

week two….

It’s early Thursday morning and it feels so fresh outside. The cool air lightly breezes against my warm body.  I am assuming that inside it is not highly populated with the masses. As, I enter the beige colored building I notice that it is very active.  There seems to be a variety of people aging from young twenties to fifty-five plus.  My friend and I are headed to the elevator. He has an appointment on the 2^nd floor at the clinic.  We are the only two on the elevator, we walk in, hit the number 2 button on the left side of the door. The elevator seems to be very plain.  It is a metal box with round buttons to the left and right of the doors. I notice that there is no elevator music playing.

We stop on the 2^nd floor and the door opens to a short and narrow hallway. Ahead there are three doors, two of which are on the left hand side. I notice there are no windows to look outside. We walk to the end of the hall. There I see a plaque that says “Mental Health”. I open the door on our right hand side, the north wall. 
As we walk in there is a small waiting room. I count 25 chairs. The chairs are clearly not new. They are metal chairs that do not fold, with blue fabric covering the cushion part.  The chairs are aligned in five different rows facing the west wall. There is a LG tv mounted on the west side of the wall. It is a flat screen around 40 inches.

I bring my eyes directly down from the mounted TV and end at a clear window separating the lady at the desk. At desk level there is an opening at the bottom where papers can be handed back and forth. There are five older people waiting in the waiting room. Looks as if two of them may be couples, one man and one woman being one pair.  The two pairs of people are occupying the first four seats in the first row. The ladies both have similar hair dos. The ladies are rocking short white hair, which looks as if they used rollers to curl their hair the night before. One man is wearing a WWII hat. Both men are wearing slacks with a polo shirt. There is one younger man sitting in the 5^th row. He is simply wearing jeans and a plain black shirt. He has long hair that is pulled back into a ponytail. None of the people have any tattoos that are showing.

This clinic is less hectic with occupants than downstairs. No one seems to be up walking around. This room has more of a home base ambiance.  There is no music playing. The TV is on the Fox News Channel. As I sit down in a chair on the 4^th aisle the younger man in the 5^th row says “good morning”. I reply, hello sir how are you today. I sit down and look up my friend is talking to a fairly young lady at the desk. She is wearing non-casual wear. She looks dressed as if she were going to church. Sheryl is wearing a nice blue button down long sleeve with grey bottoms. Her name is on a nametag. Sheryl is her name.

I hear the lady say to my friend go ahead and come through the door, the counselor will see you now.

My friend has counseling with a therapist. While I am waiting for his appointment to end I continue observing the room.  The couples on the 1^st row seem really interested in the Fox News Channel. They have not said anything, yet they continue to stare at the TV.  Fox is talking about the killings of the two journalists. I hear one lady say “What a shame”. Indeed I think to myself it is a shame that this has happened. Wonder how the families are doing of the people who died. I wonder if they watch the News or if they are not able to do so being that it would be a very heavy issue losing a loved one especially in that manner.

The door to the mental health room opens and a middle age woman walks in. She signs a piece of paper at the desk and makes small talk with Sheryl.  The lady sits in the 3^rd row directly ahead of me. Her perfume fills the room with a wonderful scent.  She looks back at me and I politely say hello. She replies, “How are you honey”.  I tell her, I am great, thank you.   She is a strong looking African American woman dressed in black sweats with a yellow sweatshirt with a hood.  It has a little graphic on the right side of her sweatshirt that looks like a skull with guns with some initials.  I also notice she is wearing some bright colored, orange and blue, Nike running shoes that look brand new.

One of the older men in the 1^st row makes a comment about our President and how people are so biased towards him.  The middle-aged woman makes a comment to the man that no matter if you agree or disagree with our presidents that it is a personal opinion and regardless you must support our country.  She then says that no matter what she thought of our countries leader she always supported our country by being in the Army. The man asked her how long has she been in the Army. She replied for 14 years. 

I tell her thank you for defending our Country. She simply smiles at me. Everyone then looks forwards once again at the TV. I notice it gets very quiet when people are watching TV. I get up to stretch my legs and notice the younger man that was sitting behind me had left the room. The room is very small and I did not notice him get up and or leave the room. One of the pair of couple in the 1^st row get up and walk on out the door to the hallway. Now there is the African American and the remaining Anglo couple in the 1^st row. 

I then look at my watch and 45 min has gone by. The lady at the desk stands up and walks out of sight. She re appears within seconds and calls the middle-aged woman through the door.

My friend and I then walk out the door. We exit the room walk to the elevator. There was an older Hispanic man wearing a red vest that clearly says, “volunteer”. He opened the elevator door for my friend and I stepped into the elevator and asked us what floor. I said the lobby thank you.  My friend with a stern voice asks the man how his day is going. The Hispanic man with a friendly tone responds: “I woke up alive so it is a wonderful day”.  My friend then says to him: “Waking up alive is the best way you can start a day”. All three of us grin and smile with laughter.

As I exit the elevator the Hispanic man holds open the door. I walk towards the exit of the building and notice the lobby is still heavily packed with people. All different ages, sizes, and ethnicities of people populate the room. The air smells of popcorn, I remember this smell from last week.