biohazard

miss e wonders how many times today did her dear readers wash their hands?

hand-washing has come back on me like a compulsive obsession. i did not count how many times i washed my hands, but i did count obsessively the number of pushes on the soap dispenser (three) and the number of pulls on the paper towel dispenser (three). as far as the TIME spent at each hand-washing, read the following:

happy birthday to you
you live in a zoo
you look like a monkey
and you smell like one too.

happy birthday to you,
happy birthday to you,
you look like a bear
and you run like one too.

and that is about how long it takes to wash my hands; of course, after bubbles have been distributed evenly throughout the surface area of my hands.

that's right class, can you spell epidemic? that is what's going on at our school. every day this week at least a hundred kids have been out sick, and at least twenty have left school early on account of this illness.

working up at the front desk, all manner of parents and babies and grandmas and other people stand behind the counter, suffering from all manner of flu/cold/idiocy/etc. they cough into their hands, then use the pens to sign in/out their children. children ask to use the phone to call home, sneezing into the receiver after i give them permission.

i asked a girl after school who was sick to please not stand so close to my desk (i don't want to get any germs!)

rule of thumb: strep throat has its own unique scent - you can smell it on someone's breath. and in my experience, if you have come close enough to someone to smell their breath and it smells like strep throat, you might very well get sick later on.

so that's what i do: i maintain an appropriate distance from people to avoid inhaling germs. i also spray/wipe down the counters, door knobs, tables, chairs, pens, notebooks, desks, etc. with lysol and those clorox disinfecting wipes.

so much depends on my staying healthy. i take the GRE on monday and if i'm sick or tired or ill-rested, i'll make stupid mistakes, or have to pay more money in order to get the test rescheduled.

so i am washing my hands obsessively.

i'm going to go take a vitamin C.