Germs are Everywhere

Everyday, every news broadcast, every paper churns the stories out like butter - "Surprise! More Germs on Shopping Carts than Toilet Seats" or "Study finds Keyboards Dirtier than Bathroom floors" There's no avoiding these stories - they spread like wildfire through the office.

The day after one comes through the wire from the AP to the local news, my every move could trigger the gossip to butt-in and cut me off. While I reach out for the after lunch mint, with a shorten breath and a slight finger jest, they draw my attention in an eleventh-hour attempt to save my life.

"Oh, I just heard..." and then story tumbles out in a condensed form before I infect myself.

They wait in bewilderment for a reaction, recognition of the heroic act, something.

Then I eat the mint. I savor it - the stale spearmint flavor and chalk like texture - and I make sure they know it. They gaze back at me like a superhero who just found out they saved a villain, possibly their archenemy.

I don't eat it out of spite. I eat the mint, because I've eaten them my whole life - well at least since I could see over the counter at Alfie's and reach into the bowl with my tiny little mitts.

Germs are everywhere. It's fact. Wash your hands before you eat, don't stick your hands in your mouth, get the flu shot, and move on. Or you could running your keyboard through the dishwasher.

Many times germs are good for you too.