GERMAPHOBE

I am living proof that the mass media provides considerable influence over the way we live our lives. In this instance, I am talking about the fact that I have become a germaphobe.

In public restrooms, I craftily work to figure out how to open the door without actually having to touch the handle after I have washed my hands. I can’t actually bring myself to open the door with paper towel in hand, lest I look like a total and complete germaphobe-freak-weirdo to everyone as I leave the restroom. I like the doors that push out so that you can just bump your hip into them without actually having to lay your hands on the door to make it open. For those doors that push in, it is always a good thing when someone comes in the restroom and pushes open the door just as you are getting ready to leave, thus ensuring no hand contact will have to occur with your clean hands and the dirty restroom door. It also skeeves me out when people use the restroom and then don’t wash their hands. I have been known to give people the ol’ stink eye as they exit the toilet stall, then proceed to head right out of the restroom without a thought to washing their hands. BLAH! I can’t imagine going out and picking up my cheeseburger and fries after just having been in a public restroom without washing my hands.

I keep a bottle of hand sanitizer in my car. Anytime I have been shopping at Wal-Mart or Kroger or Cub’s or any other public establishment (especially when I have been pushing a shopping cart), I immediately come out to the car and use the hand sanitizer. My kids even know that as soon as we get back to the car, I am going to give them each a squirt of sanitizer - - I always try to get Aleita first - - she is the thumb sucker, and as soon as she gets into her booster seat in the car and gets comfortable, the thumb goes in the mouth. I just try to prevent a few thousand germs from doing the same.

I have heard experts say that because of all the anti-bacterial products and hand sanitizers we have now, we are actually doing ourselves a disservice because our bodies never get the chance to develop an immunity to certain germs and bacteria, so when we are exposed, we get very sick instead of our bodies being able to fight it. Even with this knowledge, I still continue with my germaphobe ways.

Any fellow germaphobes out there? Raise your hands! (Just please make sure they’re clean first!)

100TH DAY OF SCHOOL

Maggie was so excited about going to school today - - it is their 100th day of school this year. To celebrate the event, each of the kids in her class had to count 100 pieces of some sort of food that could be put into a trail-mix sort of creation that they would all mix together and eat. I took Twizzlers and cut them up into pieces, and Maggie counted out 100 of them to go to school to add to the magic stew. In theory, this sounds like a very clever first grade sort of fun activity. To me though, all I can think about is that there will likely be 100 different kinds of germs mixed in from the kids' hands as well (I did make Maggie wash her hands before she handled the licorice.)

When do germs start being a concern for us? Kids have absolutely no concept of them. They will happily eat whatever treat some kid brings to school with them. They will casually pick candy up off the dirtiest floor and not even give it a second thought before putting it in their mouth.

Maggie's school (and Aleita's school as well) have a rule that any treats brought to class must be store bought. I say, Amen brother. I can't tell you how many homemade cupcakes and cookies and the like I politely accepted from my students when I used to teach elementary school. As soon as school was dismissed for the day, that lovely goodie was off my desk and into the garbage can. I had seen the condition in which my students came to school each day - - there was no way on God's green earth that I was going to put something from their kitchen into my mouth. After all, for some of those kids, if their momma cleaned the kitchen like she cleaned their laundry, then that meant not very often and not very well - - and never with bleach.

I am sure that Maggie will roll in tonight with tales about their wonderful 100th day of school celebration. She will no doubt have enjoyed the mish-mashed goodness of whatever food items that each kids' germ-laden fingers meticulously counted one hundred of. I can only hope that her teacher enjoyed this marvelous snack right alongside the kids.