Wisdom (?) of Rufus #904

Rufus and the school nurse proclaimed yesterday that he had a double ear infection. So I dutifully made a doctor's appointment today, loaded up the sick 2-year old (cold, allergies, something snotty), got the boys out of school, and drove the 45 minutes (cost in gas, round trip = ~$15) to the clinic. We were all p.o.ed because even though we were 20 minutes early, they called us to go to the exam room immediately. This meant two things:

1. We got robbed of valuable time playing with the little bead roller coaster table things and other fine wooden toys which harbor the infectious germs of the thousands of drooling, sneezing, spitting, and squirting children.

AND

2. We got to sit in the exam room, which has no toys, no books, no nothing except electrical outlets and very thin walls so that everyone around us can hear the chaos my three offspring are causing...for THIRTY-FIVE MINUTES while we waited on the doctor.

Ah, but I digress...

Before entering the toyless exam room sweatbox, Rufus got the standard weight, temperature, drug use, and hat size prep work interview. There we stood, with two other multi-child families, around the scale and thermometer station, with three nurses aids, all being ushered through the procedures. Rufus got weighed. The nurse asked if he was on any medications. I resisted the urge to answer, "no, but could you sneak me some happy pills from the sample supply?" She took his temperature. Amidst all the activity, she asked me, "Is he allergic to any medicines?" To which I quietly answered "Keflex." Quietly, I say, because there was plenty of other chatty noise in the 6-foot circle that all three families and aides were sharing.

Because I was trying to be unobtrusive, she didn't hear me. "I'm sorry?" she said. I opened my mouth to repeat myself, and at that very moment, one of those coincidental lulls fell over the crowd. And as if on cue, Rufus, in his best hog-calling siren of a voice announced,

"I AM ALLERGIC TO CATHOLICS."

(Yes, after a moment of hang-time during which all eyes looked at Rufus and then at me, everyone over the age of 12 started laughing (thankfully). No, Rufus did not have any ear infections.)