Viral fun

A lot of flight attendants tend to be germ-phobes. It's understandable, all of that recycled air and shared arm rests and tray tables is pretty disgusting if you think about it. Plus people are always trying to hand your their nasty trash - my favorites are (used) diapers or soda bottles filled with spat-out smokeless tobacco. Yum!

Also, airports. Just the thought of how many people put their bacteria-ridden, sweaty palms on escalator rails makes me queasy. Or (shudder) the bathrooms there.

But while I never considered myself fanatical in my considerations of the invisible world of germs, I think I'm rapidly heading in that direction.

For one thing, right now I'm sick with some loathsome virus that my roommates passed on to me, most likely due to their lax domestic hygeine. Not to mention their collective refusal to go to the doctor! I'm serious. This is the second time one of them has gotten me sick in less than six months because they prefer "toughing it out" rather than getting medication, so they spend at least a week being sick, spreading their viral fungus throughout the household until it catches my poor abused system unawares. ("jet-lagged? immunity down? let's GET HER!!")

So I've started carrying around hand sanitizer and cringing whenever someone coughs, then counting to fifteen before I take a breath again. Compulsive and frightening, or necessary behavior in this world of predatory germs?