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I had to fast for at least twelve hours before my annual checkup today. So when I got up this morning, I had to remind myself not to do two things: eat and pee. Saturday morning traffic is usually light, so I gave myself just enough time so that I would get to the doctor's office about ten to fifteen minutes early. On the drive up to the highway at the intersection before the interchange, I noticed a car weave into the turning lane and then signal it's intention to get back into my lane. I was waving the person ahead, but the woman was waving me up. I drove up next to her car and rolled down the window. She asked me if this was where you got onto the highway. I thought that maybe she was not from around here, so I told her that you need to get onto the highway from my lane (since her turning lane technically ends). I left it at that. When the light turned green, traffic moved forward, and as the SUV in front of me pulled ahead, I realized why she asked that silly question: The entrance ramp to the highway was closed.
Crap!
All of a sudden, memories of my previous encounter with this same closed interchange flooded back into my mind. I recalled having to drive to Yonge and get on the highway there, only to find out that that entrance ramp was also closed!
At this point in time, I felt stupid for telling the lady to take that lane, so after I made a U-turn, I stopped my car (since she had stopped her car) and I yelled at her to go to Yonge instead. I figured that there was a chance that it was open?
Well, I sped off after that since I knew that I would be cutting it really close. When I got to Yonge, instead of blindly driving down to the entrance ramp, I inched my way forward until I could see if the entrance ramp was closed (since you could not easily see from the street. The moment I saw those cones, I pulled out of the turning lane and decided to take the side streets up to the doctor's office. I was lucky that there was so little traffic or I would have had no choice but to continue with the turn. As such, I saved myself quite some time that way, which was good, because even without any further delays, I arrived at the office a couple of minutes late.
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While I was rushing down to the clinic, I passed by a large group of people milling about in the hallway. I was a little surprised to see so many people there so early in the morning, but I did not pay too much heed as I was late.
The doctor's office was empty when I got there, but it was also open. When I took a look at the hours of operation, I saw that the clinic normally opened at nine on Saturdays! What the hey? Well, I got in and there was indeed people inside, etc. Actually, just two: the doctor and a nurse/receptionist. The checkup was fast, and the measurements were pretty quick (I am apparently gaining a lot of weight since I am now at 168 lb). But the doctor suggested that I go to the laboratory down the street because the one in this building was usually packed on Saturdays.
Okay, so I went outside to the hall and walked down to the lab. Then I realized what he was talking about. The large group of people milling about that I saw earlier were actually people who were waiting to get their lab tests done! The waiting room was already full and there were people waiting outside? Heck, I figured that the other laboratory could not be any worse, so I left the building, and drove down to the other lab.
I arrived and had to orient myself since I did not know where the laboratory was. I decided to go downstairs on a hunch, and I saw people milling about in the hallway. That was a bad sign. I looked around and found the lab, and yes it was indeed full. However, this lab had a waiting room about half the size as the other lab and there were a couple less people waiting outside than the first place, so I figured that it would be faster here.
When I brought my paperwork to the receptionist, I asked how long it would take and I was told that it would be "a while". Oh goody.
So I waited. An hour later, my name got called and I went inside. One of the nurses gave me a container and told me to give a urine sample. I produced the container that I already had and she told me to sit down to wait for the blood test.
So I waited. I took a nap and was eventually called up for my blood letting. The entire process took less than five minutes and I was out of the door. Crap! Why does it seem so short for such a long wait?!?
At least the drive home was uneventful (and fast).
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