fat kids at hospital Yesterday I helped a friend with some minor out patient surgery by giving him a ride to and from the hospital, etc.   It was a VERY early morning check-in during that delicious quiet time when the sky is just starting to get light, so I took a long walk around the hospital grounds and the nearby neighborhood. Came back to the waiting area fully prepared with my book and snack, only one other person there. Over the next hour or so two more people arrived, and everyone seemed to be quietly enjoying the peaceful early morning ambience. You know where this is going. Elevator door opens and a cacophony of noise and fat spills out--huge sweaty woman with 3 obese children. Kids looked close together in age, maybe 7, 8 & 10, or thereabouts. The mom looked late forties/early fifties so she was probably late twenties/early thirties. I noticed she had a diaper bag, but no baby.  As soon as she found one of those double-wide chairs she started unpacking the diaper bag filled with--you guessed it-- fast food fatty goodness. At 9:15 in the morning.  As you know, fats have absolutely no self-awareness. They staked out an area of about 25 chairs like it was a campground site and the kids sat on the floor, spread food on the floor, yelled and fought with each other about who got what, while Mom ignored them and watched something on her phone at full volume. Fortunately it was a large room attached to three wide hallways so the hospital air eventually absorbed most of the greasy haze. After about 20-30 minutes of this the kids started falling into food comas and it became quieter except for the occasional "don't touch me" or "that's my fry".  Later on I thought, "How/why/where do you get fries at 9am?" During their sugar/insulin recovery I pulled out and set on the seat next to me a sliced apple arranged in such a way that it retained the apple shape in the plastic bag. One of the reclining children immediately sat up and stared at the apple. I thought I'd take another stab at reading, so I arranged my book on my lap, reached for an apple slice, and suddenly this kid is right in front of me, like three inches away. "What's that?" "It's an apple." "Can I have some?" Part of me wanted to say "Fuck off, kid", but another part of me felt sorry for this doomed child with man boobs and a total ignorance of fruit so I looked over at the mom (who was of course completely oblivious to her child asking a stranger for food samples) and called out, "Is it okay if he has a piece of apple?" She looked confused for a couple of seconds and then mumbled what I think might have been the word "sure", so I gave the kid a slice and he grinned and ran off with it as if it were a prize. The other two kids watched him, blinking over and over again, looking at him, looking at me, looking at him, looking at me. I smiled and held up the bag (which of course is the universal sign for "yes, you can have some too"), so they both came over to get a slice. They stood in front of me chewing this novelty item called an APPLE and seemed pretty happy. First boy came back over and I gave them all another slice. Fortunately this was a big apple sliced thinly. I told them after the second piece I had to save the rest because that was my breakfast and my lunch and they didn't want me to be hungry later, did they? As far as I could tell, Mom brought no toys or coloring books or anything else to occupy them, so they played with the fast food leftovers on the floor, moving pieces of bread around and making car noises, occasionally eating a dirty piece of something. Mom watched phone tv. About 10:45 she broke out the candy bars. Multiple, full-sized candy bars. No one asked for them, no one was fussing, no one said they were hungry. She just gave them candy and they unquestioningly ate it. I was losing my mind a little by then so I stood up to stretch and walk a bit and I heard the beer-bellied boy say to her, "Can we get apples sometime?" She sighed and said, without looking at him, "Maybe." Sorry it's a little long. Had to share my hate.