Just once...

It is very seldom that I bitch, gripe, or complain about much in life. I believe that there is a positive side to everything and at times, though I am really stretched to find the light side of darkness, I do. But on Wednesday I fell victim to my negativity.
So, as I mentioned, Juan had a fever all weekend. On Monday night, while bathing him, a bunch of small red bumps appeared on his torso. WELL you can imagine how I immediately panicked, especially as there has been an outbreak of measles thanks to all the soccer fanatics that went to South Africa for the world cup and brought the virus back with them. Measles is a vaccine that they don't recommend giving until 1 year of age, so Juan has yet to have it.
When the red splotches appeared I freaked!
So on Tuesday we went to the hospital. On our way there, as he does each day, Juan fell asleep in the Ergo baby carrier while riding the bus, and so I took advantage of enjoying a nice latte with three mini croissants in a bar near the hospital. I was soooooo disgusted by the things I encountered in the bar that it took everything in me to bite my tongue and not flail ferocious words at the woman beside me.
She was obviously the aunt of a young child, no more than 7 years old, who was hacking up a lung every minute or so. She never once said, "cover your mouth." She never once handed him a hankie, and to top it off...SHE ORDERED HIM A LATTE AND PUT TWO PACKS OF SUGAR IN IT FOR HIM!!!!
In my head, I had ripped her a new orifice on the dangers of sugars, in real life I asked for the check and left as fast as I could so as not to catch any of the snot particles flailing from the snotty nosed child's mouth.
Entering the Hospital was not much better, there were 20 some odd people of all ages waiting to see the doctor on call, all of which were hacking up lungs and taking no precautions what so ever. As I sat there quietly trying to guard Juan's face from germs, I began to sweat, I heard coughing all around me, began to look around and see the young and old alike coughing and hacking and yes, reaching for their coca cola! THEIR COCA COLA!!!
As my anxiety grew and began to get the best of me, I quickly stood up, gathered our things, and left as nimble as I had entered. I could not handle sitting in that room for one second more.
As we made our way to the bus stop, every person I passed had a cigarette hanging from their nicotine tainted fingers or tar laden lips, and that was my explosion point. I began questioning what on earth we were doing living in a society who so blatantly disregards their personal health as well as the health of those around them.
According to author, Eric Weiner, "Other people's problems are our problems." I couldn't agree more, and especially in this case, where an entire society appears to be sick with a spring cold or flu and no one seems to give two shits about spreading their germs to the person next to them, or how about, preventing it in the first place by evading things that collapse our immune systems to begin with?! No, that would be entirely too innovative an idea.
Ok, so there, there it is, my two bits of negative insight to this place I call home, even though my heart isn't in it. Home it is for now.