I can trend towards germophobia. I’m much, much better than I was in New York (“oh no germs everywhere!”) but I still wash my hands a lot and I don’t like touching door handles and I take my shoes off at home and I purell everything after putting gas in the car.
But every so often, a lightbulb comes on over my head and I realize some thing I do every day is probably totally covered in germs.
Communal M&M bowl at work, with everyone’s fingers in it all day? Oops. (But come on…cinnamon M&Ms!)
The lock on a bathroom stall – you wouldn’t believe how long it took me to process that this is not just touched by me when I come in with clean hands…but by everyone leaving the stall, who invariably all have disgusting germy hands!
And my latest one, that I really just realized yesterday: Coke cans.
- It looks so smug. But I know the truth now.
That lip you drink from, where drops of soda always collect…I mean, who hasn’t grabbed a can of Coke at a picnic and wiped off that part, because it’s dusty or damp with condensation or it’s just a force of habit? But yesterday I realized – that is a part of the OUTSIDE of the can. That part is exposed to the world, to the factory machines, to grimy people handling it, to dogs…maybe licking it? Maybe? Who knows what’s been happening to it in the time it took for this can to get from the factory to the Jolly King liquor store where I bought it?
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7 replies on “A Victory in Battle”
“And it made me strong.”
Except for the fact it is now giving you diabetes.
I’ve cut back on diet Coke a lot. Baby steps.
Also, the Jolly King is the ONLY place I’ve ever been that sells single cans of the caffeine-free stuff. So it’s like, I have to take advantage of that when I’m up there.
Hello dear one, The best advice I can give you about avoiding “germs” is when you are out and about touching things that others have touched, DO NOT TOUCH OR RUB YOUR NOSE OR EYES!! That is one of the main ways of catching colds. Otherwise, don’t worry so much- our bodies have great defenses!
Denise
I know this…but I still absent-mindedly touch my face about a million times a day. Particularly my mouth and eyes. =(
I started using straws when I lived in new york. You know how if you buy a can in NYC they always give you a staw (maybe it was just me) ? I asked why once and they said it’s because the top of the can sits in the flat and rats can….do their business…on them. Straws it is!!
Yes! I remember that! And I didn’t really drink from cans in NYC. But I hated the way the carbonation would always push the straw out of the can – right?