It can be a very depressing sight and site - the waiting room of a doctor's office.

And this goes for any doctor, whether they are a general practitioner or a specialist. In fact, you know the place where I saw the most depressed-looking people? At the dermatologist! I guess the problem was the long wait, but, other than that, I wasn't sure why everyone was so glum.

My own dermatologist might kill me for saying this, but it's not like the people who come to see one are gravely ill. Taking care of one's skin is essential, of course, as the skin is like any other organ. But the look of almost utter despair on the faces of the other patients was a tad disturbing for yours truly.

Now I was sickly as a child, but, mercifully, I have got stronger with age (kinda like good whiskey). So I have been in a few waiting rooms and I have come to realise that there's always a few characters inside the room. There's the phone junkie. The person who, no matter how long they're in there never come off the phone. I don't know how they do it. Could be two or three hours, it's just yap, yap, yap. And, of course, at some points in their either really long conversation or one of their many small ones, they get so loud it starts disturbing the already don't-want-to-be-here people.

the moaner

Then there is the moaner. There always seems to be one person in more pain than the others. And that still goes for the dermatologist crowd. Now this person is either going to make you more depressed than you already are, or make you feel happy about your current state.

Another individual who is either going to cheer you up or make you strangle them is the singer. That's the person who knows, it appears, most of the songs on the radio and proceeds to sing all of them. Often it's off-key, a few times you actually have a Digicel Stars contestant waiting to happen. This person can be substituted for another character, the TV lover. So the TV lover is the person who doesn't just watch whatever programme is on, they comment on everything.

And finally (at least for this column) the executive. Unless you go on the weekend, you're always going to find at least one person who is dapperly dressed (office-like). This is in contrast to the other folks who are in casual clothes. Usually the exec is going back to work, depending on how under the weather they are. But like any true exec, especially those in the banking sector, they are still on top of things; twiddling away checking their work e-mail. Back in the day, it was the laptop, now it's the iPad or smartphone.

So the next time you're in the doc's office, take a look around and tell me I'm wrong. Later!

Link me at daviot.kelly@gleanerjm.com.