...For awhile now, I've been thinking about writing an informercial post - something so whacked out that you can't help but laugh. I used to think these up in IM with an All Natural Lunatic when we both were on IM during the workday.

Oh boy, we had some good ones and they often saved our sanity (or at least gave us something to laugh over). Anyway, I've been wracking my brain for an idea, and I couldn't come up with anything that would even make me smile (even though I know I'm a very tough audience). So I gave up. And, as with most interesting things that you think about or want a lot and give up on, inspiration finally struck...

...my foot.

No, I'm not going to talk about my foot. Something struck my foot. While I was waiting for my eye doctor to call my name yesterday (routine check, just updating my lenses, everything's still just fine, and the quack from last year is still a quack), and while I had my head in a magazine, this little robotic car struck my foot, flipped around on it's wheel, and then headed away. As I watched it roll away, I noticed that it was the source of the annoying buzzing sound that I had been trying to tune out.

Hey, it's a brand new building, and I'd already seen a repairman working on something on that floor, so a strange buzzing noise gets subconsciously filed away and ignored.

I followed the little car to the source - a young man, dressed in a shirt and tie and Dockers with a hospital vendor tag snapped to his shirt pocket holding a remote control unit. When I met his eyes, he started the spiel, trying to convince us that this was a great little present for kids, it's cheaper than the ones sold at Toys'R'Us, etc etc etc.

He was hawking these remote control cars in the hospital. A live infomercial right there in front of me. It's only $10! Buy two, but you won't save! Whatta deal!

Give me a break, folks. It's a *hospital*. And it was sanctioned by the hospital (I checked, and the lady I talked to wasn't too happy about it either it seems but didn't have an explanation as to *why* the administration allowed this). You'd think that you'd be safe at a hospital from commercials.

Well, relatively safe. I mean, you've got banners and ads in the optical services department, and maybe an Ortho-Tricyclin poster in OB/GYN, but now you have a real life person coming in and hawking toys to you.

Thank goodness that my kids weren't there, else that guy (and whomever I could have found in the hospital administration offices) would have gotten a big piece of my mind. Thank goodness my DH wasn't there - else we might *own* one of those things. That or he'd be given a lot of credit for much wittier things said in this entry, and he would have been credited with almost the entire thing.

I *should* complain anyway - I was just minding my business until I became a prop in his show. He didn't start speaking until I looked up, from the other side of the room, after he struck my foot. It's clear that this kid wanted the attention of everyone in the room, and I just happened to be not paying attention on the other side of the room. So he used the great tactic of doing something that would assure that he gets everyone's attention. He attempts to run over my foot.

Someone should really enroll that kid in a sales course. One of the more important rules about presentations (I learned this in PR, which is just idea sales instead of product sales) - know your audience. Clearly, among the senior set that was there, the one middle aged Asian man, and me (a young looking 34 year old) he must have thought he had the right demographic.

I would complain, but it might lead to more entertaining blog entries.

After all, the next appointment I have is in the OB/GYN department. Just think of the things we could see next while I bury my head in a magazine there while waiting! Buy your own cover-up for the next time you have to visit the doctor! Or am I going to see the latest in diaper bags or strollers. Or maybe one of those juice for life things, or hey! I've got it! A live demonstration of John Basedow's Fitness for Life, or whatever that program is...

...and *that* will be when I seriously reconsider my Kaiser membership.