Miserable People: Part 2

My sister just got out of the hospital. In the past two weeks, she had been in 5 hospitals in 3 countries. She had surgery every day for the last 3 days. She is fine now, but things were pretty scary for a while there. I flew out from the west coast to be with her in the hospital. Now that she is okay, we are all QUITE relieved.

Today, the DAY after she was released from Johns Hopkins, we got some coffee at a crowded Panera Bread. We were extra happy, being that she is no longer in a hospital bed and I am no longer scared my sister is going to die. We are chatting and giggling away...when suddenly this nasty old woman gets up from the booth next to us, walks over, and starts yelling at us. She says, "I'm sorry, it's not my business, but you two are talking loudly, like you are on a cell phone. I can hear everything you are saying." She did NOT say it nicely. She scowled and scolded. Then she walked away. Multiple people looked at us like, did she REALLY just do that to you??? As soon as she sat down, I could hear every word she said. I could hear what most people were saying. It is a RESTAURANT. Not a library. People TALK in public restaurants.

This woman was clearly just a miserable person. If she really heard every word we were saying, then she would have heard us saying "You are so lucky the pulmonary embolism didn't kill you," and "I can't believe they had to operate on you for 3 straight days." Or if we truly were being excessively loud, then perhaps she could have politely asked us to be quieter. It's not like we were trying to be rude. We were celebrating life and sisterhood and togetherness. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe our joy was offensive to her Grinch-like demeanor.

My point is this...if you hate people and happiness, then STAY AT HOME. Misery has no place at Panera Bread.