I do my best. I especially hate waiting in waiting rooms -- doctors' offices, car repair. The TV set always seems to be blaring, so that I can't even read, or people talk loudly on cell phones or to each other, and in many auto waiting rooms, the air seems stale.

Sometimes, when I feel like I'm waiting for the knife to fall, the shoe to drop -- a vague or not so vague feeling that something unpleasant is going to happen -- I wish I could put it off forever.