Odd sights

Been meaning for a while to recount some of the odder things we (ok, mostly me since you-know-who wasn't exactly wandering the hospital much) saw while we were out in Cleveland. Some are just "huh, interesting" moments but the capper was a doozy of head-scratching.

• Late one evening, maybe after I was leaving  him in first night of ICU and waiting down in lobby for my parents to be my 'taxi' I thought I saw their honkin' huge white SUV pull up but then realized it had black on it too. Was one of the Clinic's own Police 'cruisers' (or maybe a regular Cleveland one, they looked similar). And next in the door was a bunch of doctors in winter coats and scrubs -- and one pulling a blue Igloo cooler.  Now, at a heart hospital you just know that guys in scrubs carrying a cooler aren't hauling six-packs of Bud Lite! It was the transplant team back from a 'harvest'. Even heard another doctor just getting off the elevators ask in doc shorthand, "Viable?" -- wondering whether it was a good heart. I didn't get to hear the response as they headed up. I do know that there was at least one other patient on M's step-down floor who was a transplant patient.  

• Another night, again waiting in the lobby, probably again for my parents to be my ride ... I saw this well-dressed, very well-coiffed, distinguished looking guy in a black topcoat come striding in towards the elevators up to step-down.... carrying no less than 8 identical , brand new, Elmo dolls. Huh. [Not sure which Elmo either -- just large Elmo boxes -- lots of 'em]  There's no maternity ward in this section. This wasn't even the entrance to the Children's hospital. So no idea who was getting all those Elmos at 11pm. 

• Every one of those late nights waiting for either the Clinic's free shuttle or the Burke free shuttle, I saw the same large guys in black topcoats, most were bald (of the I-shave-because-I-look-tough-kind), kinda big and buff looking. And all sported either discreet, or not so much so, walkie talkies, as well as other electronics and small computers. Thinking they were private security for some patient, possibly the ones who get to stay on the special suite floor [apparently for big wigs or "executive patients"] up near the roof. Of course if the Suits were downstairs, who was with the patient and how many Suits did this person need? Was interesting to play guessing games. Oh, also saw a parade of identical limos outside the nicer of the hotel restaurants one night -- all with the same vanity tags "Shima __" and a number, saw #s 10, 12, 9, 21, 22, 13.  Guess that's where the Suits' other people were staying? or the guy with the Elmo dolls?
  

• I'm not even really counting the 437 people I saw, including way too many Clinic docs, nurses and staff, doing the look that is oh-so-not-as-cool-as-you-think-it-is of stuffing their pants down their boots. Every variety of Ugg or just Ugly boot there is, and the biggest offenders gotta be the nurses in their scrubs and whites with the pants stuck down in the black or other dark giant fluffy, scruffy, puffy, furry boots. Looked like marmots attacking the feet of many many women. 

But the piece de resistance of odd things seen ... 

• M was out of the hospital, we were trying to head out of the hotel to escape the campus boundaries for dinner on our 2nd to last night, and thought we had caught the down elevator from our hotel. But nope, we wound up making unscheduled stops. Good thing too, or we would've missed the best sight of all. Doors open and in step two huge guys, again of the I'm-bald-because-I-want-to-be-and-I-can-bench-your-car-look.  Except they weren't just kinda tough looking. They were sporting armor. Not police type body armor, I mean King Arthur, Lancelot, Black Knight, let's-go-storm-the-castle-boys, ARMOR!!  They had on chain mail down their legs, hauberks, boots, breast plates, carrying swords and more armor kind of armor. Now where on earth were two would-be knights going at 7pm in the middle of January, in Cleveland, and at a hotel that is specifically connected to the Cleveland Clinic??  I know I was told this was a crappy neighborhood, but c'mon, really??!! 

It was such a sight that M and I were still giggling over it later at the restaurant and hours later.


Peace
J