A Hazard of the Job

This week has been crazy at work. Really, really nuts. We've been dealing with several crises at once, some of them quite serious.

Working in the health field messes with my psyche sometimes. I can convince myself that I have symptoms of whatever is going around. I have bad dreams - dreams I don't even want to recount.

And I couldn't even enjoy the sweet slice of Americana that I witnessed yesterday. I was driving home for lunch (just HAD to get out of the office for a minute) and was in my neighborhood when I saw three children standing beside a table in their front yard. Hand-drawn signs were hanging from the front advertising lemonade for sale for 50 cents a cup.

My heart was warmed and I was grateful I actually had a dollar in my wallet. I usually don't have cash, and they didn't appear to be set up to take debit cards. I got out of the car and ordered 2 cold ones.

But as I watched them prepare my lemonade, the public health part of my brain kicked in. "They're not wearing gloves, they're not wearing gloves." The refrain kept running through my brain as I watched their little fingers holding the spoon, so dangerously close to the water. And where did that water come from anyway? Were those cups clean? Why weren't these kids wearing hairnets?

I knew my colleagues would tell me not to drink it. Not worth the risk. But both Lee and I drank our lemonade with lunch. It just somehow seemed wrong not to. I wanted to believe. I had a lemonade stand when I was younger, set up right across the street from a construction site in mid-summer. Talk about knowing my audience! They seemed grateful for the cool beverage, and I would have been offended if they hadn't thought it was safe to drink. So I drank it. And so far, I'm fine.

But all that internal dialogue is a hazard of the job I guess.

This week really has been kind of rough, but every evening when I get home, I feel my blood pressure drop. Being with Lee and Camille is like good medicine. I mean, who couldn't smile with this little angel strolling bears around the house?