Eeeewwwwww. I used to work in customer service for a medical supply company. I was constantly horrified at what single use products hospitals we re-using. Not always because of budget issues, sometimes just because they didn't know any better or didn't care. I shudder just thinking about it now. Hospitals are nasty, nasty places.

That paperwork has (possible) germs you know about up in one corner of it; a typical dollar bill has germs all over it. Also, possibly cocaine and definitely residual urine from people's hands. But, nobody rants about people handing them money.

Anger about your present situation may be getting transferred onto the guy who's handling your paperwork. I'm not trying to minimize your anxiety at all- just saying maybe that guy signing you out isn't a healthy target for your rage.

I know you're going through a bad medical thing right now and I really fuckin' hope for the best for ya. Not only are we MeCha friends, but you're the reason my guys in Spore have any cool buildings to live in AT ALL. :)

Hee, thanks BP. I miss that game, I haven't played since my honeymoon last year (aaaaand THAT'S how big of a geek I am).

Naw, it's just one of those big pet peeves of mine. It isn't even so much the disease carrier aspect, my grandmother always told me not to do that because it is inconsiderate to the person you are handing the paper/money to, and it's a good way to make yourself sick from sticking your dirty fingers in your mouth.

But, nobody rants about people handing them money.

Oh, yikes, I did when I worked a cash register. Or, to be precise, I didn't rant about it, but I did wash my hands at every opportunity.

I'm not a germaphobe, but I am cautious about what public/shared surfaces I touch, especially heavily circulated things like money. I can tell you the isolated incident that amped me up from slightly cautious to very cautious, which also converted me from the school of thought that considered hand sanitizer to be a generally bad thing to the school of thought that considered it a very good thing in the right time and place.

I had just started managing a video store. A customer returned a pornographic tape in the drop box. I picked it up and...

....let me be imprecise here.

I picked it up and noticed that the hard plastic case was... untidy. Some of that untidiness was also smeared on my hand.

I washed up myself and the case, took a few bucks out of petty cash, locked up the store, and went to the neighborhood drugstore where I bought a giant pump bottle of hand sanitizer.

From that day forward, we always kept a bottle of it handy behind the counter.

now *that's* fucking disgusting

Except that fucking most likely wasn't the issue ...

EWWWW!!!! I would have washed my hands in bleach, too.

I'd have banned that customer.

Another hospital pet peeve of mine:

The whole point of wearing scrubs is so that you don't bring germs, etc. from your street clothes into the hospital situation and don't take hospital germs/bodily fluids/whatever out into the greater world.

Therefore, wearing scrubs while smoking outside (which, even aside from all of the health risks, you shouldn't be doing anyways, OMG NICOTINE FINGERS) is TOTALLY COUNTERPRODUCTIVE, JERKS.

Elsa, have you read that blog of the porn-shop video counter person? I think what I was thinking of was True Porn Clerk Stories (SFW) but apparently it's only available in published form now. (Also, she was on This American Life.)

I have read that blog, but I didn't know she'd been on TAL, so many thanks for the link!

I used to have to look away as the university cashier licked her fingers between counting out bills. Aaaaiigh!

Ew. I had a friend who worked as a "mop boy" at one of those peep show places in LA. He said the last straw was the day he went to clean one of the booths and found that one of the patrons had defecated in it. He said he quit on the spot.

When I was a cashier, I used this pink fingertip moistener stuff for counting money. http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/B000087HJV Worked great for separating the plastic bags too. They sold it in Walmart in the stationery section, where you'd find the coin rolls.