Stay out of my PERSONAL SPACE!

I swear, I just can't get a BREAK! Does this happen to anybody else, or is it just me? The other day I was taking youngest son to the orthodontist and we had one of those very early morning appointments so my young 'blessed precious' wouldn't miss any of his 2.3 hours of school. (but that's ANOTHER story)

Anyway--we get him checked in and taken to 'the back' and I go sit down in the lobby to wait. Mind you, this lobby is HUGE and has like 75 chairs and so I go find one in a corner to sit quietly by myself and read my book when this guy comes in and out of the entire cavernous, empty place, chooses the chair RIGHT NEXT TO ME to sit his foul smelling self down.

This guy smelled like the bottom of an ashtray used in seedy bowling alley. I looked up from my book to see if there were any hidden cameras in the place to capture my reaction to this personal space invasion.

It's going to to be obvious when I get up and move that it's because of HIM and I am in the uncomfortable, but necessary position to do just that, when the receptionist calls his name and he gets up and goes to check in, thankfully.

THEN some bedraggled mother with a middle schooler, and several toddlers comes barging in and comes all the way over to the other side of the room (where I am naturally!) and parks her brood right down by ME! What is this? What is happening here? Did I shower longer than necessary this morning?

The ENTIRE PLACE IS EMPTY and she sits down with her 3 unruly kids right next to ME! Do I look like I want to have a conversation with my hat pulled down over my head and a book covering my face? Am I too friendly and approachable? (I'll have to work on that)

So I get up and go out to the restroom for a few minutes and come back to find that she's still there slapping the kids around, minus the middle schooler--who must have been called to the back.

I walk to another empty area to sit when another person waltzes in and watches me carefully. Oh no! I'm on to you, buddy. I'm gonna watch where this guy sits first. So I wait while he stands and watches me. I decided to go with the fake--I move over to a chair, watching him follow me over there and bend down like I'm going to sit and he moves in a few chairs to my right. That's when I spring up and make my move with my cell phone in hand like I just got a call and go out towards the rest room again.

By the time I came back he was seated and looking a bit nonplussed. I chose a seat next to the door in the corner where there could only be one person who sat next to me and I put my coat and purse on it, just to be safe. Then I once more, tried to pull out my book--and just as I was thumbing through, trying to find my place--a woman comes and moves my stuff off the chair and sits next to me.

"I give up!" I yell. That's when she tells me she's the dental assistant and has the results back of my youngest son's exam.

So I calm my respiration to a more normal rate and listen to her and collect my son and leave.

It's not that I don't want to be friendly. (well maybe I don't) But I just need my personal space. I don't ask for much--just 3 to 4 feet between myself and a complete total stranger when in a questionable hygienic setting.

Youngest son got the point rather quickly and made himself scarce around the house. . . .