Becoming cautiously germ-phobic

Yesterday I went for some routine medical tests, and as I'm sitting in the waiting room, there is a guy to my right who sounds like he is about to hack up a lung. To my left, on a table, I notice several well-read magazines and newspapers. After taking all this in, I started thinking there was NO way I wanted to touch any of those reading materials, and didn't even want to touch the arms of the chair when I got up as my number was called! This of course led me to thinking about the little laminated number card I had to take as I walked in the door for registration/sign in, and what viral potpourri it might contain, and the whole visit started to creep me out.

On a related note, my local grocery store has ballpoint pens on little chains for customers to use to sign credit card receipts. I now carry a pen in my purse to be used instead of the community one. I try to not think about who might have touched the grocery cart before me, and always wash my hands after returning home from shopping and putting the groceries away.

For years, I've used a paper towel to open the door of the restroom, after seeing more than my fair share of people exit the stall and walk right out the door without stopping to wash their hands.

I used to believe that other people followed basic rules for personal hygiene, but I've seen too many kids touching everything within reach and read too many stories about totally filthy houses that being around strangers is almost becoming gross to me.

I carry hand sanitizer , my own pen, and kleenex in my purse and briefcase.
I have witnessed too many moo's change diapers, wipe snot, wipe spit, and clean up vomit without porperly washing up afterwards. It is disgusting.
I have always been a bit on the germaphobe side, but lately is has gotten worse.

Kids are the filtiest, germ-ridden little fuckers around. They're the ones I fear.

I am NEVER sick nor do I catch things from people (knock on wood!) but 2 winters ago I caught something from my nephews and I was sick for 2 fucking weeks with some shit I could NOT get rid of.

KidFreeLuvnLife Wrote:
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> Kids are the filtiest, germ-ridden little fuckers
> around. They're the ones I fear.
>
> I am NEVER sick nor do I catch things from people
> (knock on wood!) but 2 winters ago I caught
> something from my nephews and I was sick for 2
> fucking weeks with some shit I could NOT get rid
> of.


I know what you mean, I caught some type of virus from my 4 year old cousin a few years ago and it almost killed me. Kids are nasty.

Being mildly OCD, I can tell you the reason I only get a cold about every 3 years is because I avoid the public, especially children.

Dr's offices make me crazy. My doctors laugh at me when they finally make it in the room because I'm compressed into a 1" square cube on the table.

I'm not a germ-o-phobe, but I am a cootie-o-phobe.

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"I have learned that pleasing everyone is impossible, but pissing everyone off is easy and fun as hell"

:eatu

I'm the same way. I never used to be this bad, but seeing first-hand how germ-ridden brats and their handlers seem to lack any sense of basic hygiene, I've gotten a little more paranoid over the years.

I carry my own pens, tissues that come in those little travel size packs, anti-bacterial hand sanitiser, and a purse-size can of Lysol spray. I have IBS, so sometimes I have absolutely no choice but to use public toilets when we go out - especially when going out to dinner. That's when the Lysol spray comes in handy (and an inch-thick layer of toilet paper on the seat, lol). It's a torture that I have no choice but to bear.

When I was in nursing school, I earned the reputation of being the pain in the ass who constantly reminded other nurses to wash their hands and to take other precautions when necessary. The same lazy cunts who could not take a few extra moments to gown, glove and mask for patients with highly resistant infections are the same hypocrites who bathe their brats in alcohol gel but let them lick the glass bakery display case at the stupidmarket.

I won't lie...I do a lot of stuff that even slightly germophobic folks might cringe at the thought of. I sometimes don't wash my hands when I use the bathroom, I touch lots of surfaces and touch my face automatically afterwards, and I hold lots of items in my mouth when I need my hands free...keys, money, and my ID card to name a few. I notice I don't get any more sick than when I would wash my hands and be finicky about cleanliness.

I think I may have picked up a stomach bug from the slobbery kid I was stuck next to on the bus last weekend. And I remember babysitting my cousin when she was a toddler, and I swear to Gawd she was always sticky with...something. I don't know if it was juice or candy drool or snot or what, but her hands were always sticky and they smelled funny and I never wanted to touch her. Try doing that when she begs to be held and throws fits.

I have always been rather clean with my own body, my own food, and careful to wash my hands, etc...., but after I served a 5 year sentence as a restaurant manager some 10+ years ago, I became a complete germo-phobe. Never have I witnessed such awe inspiring filth as I did during that time period and I learned that filth and improper handling of food product, misuse of communal table accessories, and poor personal hygiene with regards to people spreading germs and illnesses through physical contact, knows no socio-economic, racial, gender, or age boundaries. Some of the best educated and cleanest looking people are pigs and some of the more shabby lot are clean. Some food suppliers, employees, and customers couldn't give a shit less if they spread their filth. I think the scariest part is that you can not just look at someone and guess if they are a pig, much like not being able to discern if a well dressed and attractive man is a serial rapist or not, and I think it's frightening.

I witnessed a LOT of shit during that time and even though it's painful to recall, I will try to remember so it might help one of you. Below are some things that I saw with my own eyes while working in a trendy, popular, regional famblee restaurant.

(not necessarily in order of grossness)
1)People change shit filled diapers at and on tables.
2)People leaving shit filled diapers at or on tables, bus boys "cleaning" said table/seats with nothing more than a wet cloth and then immersing same cloth BACK in bus water, for the NEXT table
3)Kyds literally sucking on condiment bottles, taking lids off of steak sauces and such and practically sticking their tongues down in them. I have watched moomie replace lids/caps and shove them back where they were, for the next customer to enjoy.
4)I have seen kitchen managers use electric razors in their work station areas.
5)BBQ pit cooks stick their hands down their pants and scratch away, and pick up cooked meat with their bare hands right afterwards.
6)Food suppliers will knowingly have truck refrigeration problems, but then deliver raw meat like chicken anyway, after it has sat in 100 degree heat for hours. They also sometimes allow frozen meats/dairy to thaw and refreeze.
7)I found a deer with a NASTY bloody bullet hole to the head in a walk in cooler one morning and he was visibly covered in ticks and fleas, and God knows what else. The owner had killed him over the weekend and left him in there until the deer processing people could open on Monday. He was propped up next to a rack of cooked meat which was served, all weekend. You literally had to move his antlers to get to the product.
8)I have seen cooks mix in old soured product with new, and then smell of it to see if it was noticable. Their excuse was that they were busy and didn't have time to wash a new pan.
9)I have seen roaches fall onto cooked product after the bug man came and employees just rake them off of the top and serve it anyway. I have also seen them pick a roach out of food or from a plate. Once I saw a cook stick the plate in a microwave and watch the roaches run out of the food, so he didn't have to pick them out.
10)I have seen SO much food off of refrigeration for too long and then served, that it's scary. Once a rack of chicken quarters had maggots working out of a few pieces because they had sat out too long, but rather than throw the whole pan away, they picked through them to find the ones where the maggots hadn't hatched, and heated them on up and plated them.
11)You can't begin to imagine the food product areas which have been desecrated after hours by horny employees who have no care that their bodily fluids could come into contact with food items.
12)People will shit on and around toilets and even in urinals. They also projectile vomit on walls, sinks, and floors. A busboy in a hurry will often fill up a mop bucket with only water, and swish a soured mop around to "clean" it up, then spray some air freshener and call it a day.
13)Customers will taste of food and then put it back in chafing dishes at caterings for others to eat, and they do this often.
14)I have seen waitstaff take a swallow from drinks they are about to serve, or even a bite of the peoples' food and make it look like a piece of a chicken finger was "broken", same with fries and other finger food.
15)Some employees NEVER wash their hands and many of them have some nasty habits which could easily spread germs like nail biting, nose picking, smoking, picking at scabs/sores, etc.....One I remember in particular was always scratching her head, but never washing her hands. Another cook used to pick/clean his ears with his carkeys, wipe whatever came out on his apron, and then go right on and serve up food.
16)Then we have the cooks, servers, and other staff who are constantly picking at food and eating while they are on duty, which I find especially nasty since it's from customers' plates or from the steam table where the food is served. I have even caught them cleaning a table and then eating directly from a bus pan, and then go right back in the dining room and pour tea in glasses. I have also seen them drink from a tea pitcher and then go refill customers' glasses.

There's probably a lot more, but these jumped out at me. I did my best to make them conform to basic cleanliness and proper food handling when I was in charge, but I wasn't there during all hours of operation, so God only knows what they got away with in my absence. I have no reason to believe that it's much different anywhere else either, from what I have heard. I rarely go out and eat because of it and when I do, I pay close attention to the food and INSIST that cold food be very cold and hot food be very hot. At least that way, the germs MAY be killed before they are consumed, if it has been contaminated.

Well, at least they are removing the roaches.....

But, I heard roaches are very smart, AND a good source of protein!

"You are what you eat"

Damn. Got me again.