Yesterday, due to a vicious attack of vertigo, I ended up in the ER. I was sitting in the wheel chair they put me in and waiting for my turn to visit the doctor in the back. I was slightly out of it, so my mind was already predisposed for wandering. I found myself narrating the wait in my head.
I "wrote" in my mind the sounds, sights, and smells (I hate hospital smells) of the ER. I fabricated the ailments of those waiting around me because I honestly didn't KNOW what their ailments were. There was the lady with the curled hand who could've broken it in a fight. There was an elderly lady who looked like she'd taken a fall - but who pushed her down? There was a young couple, probably late teens/early twenties, that constantly got up and walked the length of the waiting room. She was the one who was being seen. Was there something wrong with her that we couldn't see, such as cancer or a bad case of the flu..or something else?
It's amazing what can happen when you let your mind wander. I continued to let my imagination run wild - mostly to keep myself from panicking - while they took me back to check me out. I daydreamed about the lives of the nurses. Who were they? Why were they nurses? What did they do in their off time? The doctor was a nice guy for a change. I've had several assholes in the ER lately. So why was he nice and so many others absolute jerks? I thought about that as well.
By the time I got out of there, I had a few short scenes mentally noted down for one of my UF stories based on the trip to the ER. I've found myself narrating events around me in my mind. It's like I'm reading my life as a book. It's a strange way of looking at life. But I find I'm better able to describe scenes in my writing by running things through my head while I'm dealing with life.
I was doing the same thing today while I was walking to the train after work.
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