Sunday, May 11, 2008

Tales from the Urgent Care waiting room...

Yesterday morning I found myself stuffed into my primary care doctor's Saturday urgent care clinic, after denying for three days that my sore throat was something more than just allergies. Like most Urgent Cares, there were a lot of people waiting for a very long period of time to see one slightly harassed looking doctor. Unlike most Urgent Cares, this was my personal family doctor, and I didn't mind waiting to see him too much...he's a nice guy who makes Romanian orphans feel better in his spare time.



Since I didn't have my son with me (mainly since I left at 8:30 on a Saturday morning to the clinic which is almost a half hour away)...I brought a book to read while waiting so I wouldn't have to thumb through germy back-issues of Women's Day in the waiting room. The book? Francesca Lia Block's I Was a Teenage Fairy. Block's most famous invention was the Weetzie Bat series of books about a teenage witch and her misfit family and dreamy pre-emo Angel Juan boyfriend. I had never read Teenage Fairy and was not disappointed. Rather, I felt transported back in time to about 1995, legs clad in some pair of glittery tights, the glorious angsty teen rising up underneath the still-in-tights-but-no-longer-angst-ridden Chrissy.
I actually enjoyed this book more than the Weetzie Bat books, as they didn't have as much strange slang and colloquialism that always (sort of, not a lot) got on my nerves (a little!) that slung out of the character's mouths. The protagonist, a teenage model named Barbie, is a bit more endearing, and lucky. Her best friend is a Mab, or fairy, or pixie (just don't call her pisky)...the book is charged with (now mind you this is a book geared towards teenagers!) sex and drugs and rock and roll...and speaks truthfully about how disjointed, creative, and still very very young teenagers are.
I read it from start to finish in the Urgent Care waiting room...but when I had to sit in the exam room all it houses were those aforementioned germy back-issue Women's Days...so I looked out the window, massaging my assaulted throat (from a strep test) and looked to see if there were any Mabs out in the parking lot.

2 comments:

Bridal Magic said...

I have loved FLB for so long! I'm anxiously waiting to read her new book, Quakeland (none of the bookstores here stock it!) and Blood Roses.

Chrissy Johnson said...

Put in a request for the library to order them! You can do it from the main website (www.knoxcounty.org/library) ...
I'll put in a staff request too, to add what little leverage I have.