The Dirtiest things..

Working at the front desk in a credit union there are several things I see that get touched every day, and I’ve determined that they may possibly be some of the dirtiest things found either in an establishment, or everywhere. And here there are, in dirtiest to cleanest order:

    1)   Money – Almost every employee in this building is touching money at some point during the day. 4 people basically touch it for a living. And probably 90% of the traffic we get is either bringing in money, or wants to take it out. And the money that we have has only come from somewhere else where people had to handle it and count it.

    2)  Door handle – coming in and going out, this isn’t something you can avoid touching (unless someone holds the door open for you or you open it with something other than your hand). If you expect to get in or out of the building, you better be expecting to touch a dirty door handle too.

    3)  Coffee pot/machine – Again, almost every employee touches this at some point during the day, and a lot of the members do, too. And not only do they touch it in the mornings when they are just waking up, it’s all throughout the day, every day.

    4)  Pens – Need to fill out a transaction slip? Chances are you don’t have a pen easily accessible at that moment, so grab one from the jar! Need to sign the document I just placed in front of you? I have a jar of pens just waiting! :)

    5)  The computer, mouse and keyboard – No employee can escape the daily task of starting up your computer and working on it all day. Banking doesn’t work that way. We even have a desktop in the lobby for our members to use, so computer germs are everywhere.

    6)  The phone – No need to go into the details on how many breakouts I’ve had because of the phone rubbing all over the side of my face. Think of how oily and germy this gets. Spit, breath, oil, it all gets on the phone!

    7)  Hands – You never know who has and who has not washed their hands after touching all the things mentioned above. Shaking hands could be the scariest thing of all!

Obviously I’m not trying to make anyone a germ phobic, but sometimes things just aren’t as “clean” as they appear.

Catching up with life

Getting married and becoming an "adult" I thought "this isn't so hard! I'm not nearly as busy as I thought I would be!" But then... came the move! The third move in our marriage. I think this move was even harder than the first one, even though the first move was when we first brought all of our belongings under the same roof. But this move is different. This move was to my Grandparent's house for the summer, where they are letting us use all their things and invade their personal space. So hardly anything of ours is getting unpacked. And that is a lot harder than I thought it would be. When someone asks you to find something in your unorganized mess. Or when your husband gets sick and needs a thermometer, essential oils, and Tylenol. This is also the first time we've moved and both of us started working right away. That makes things very difficult. Since we are so unorganized this summer, and with both of us working, it gives us very little time to get our lives in order. Which causes mass chaos around our home. We also love living so close to our friends and family, but it does make things much busier! Our social calendar is constantly full. Seriously, I got a planner and started writing down everything we did every evening and every day had something written on it for weeks! We have been running ourselves ragged. And just when I think we are starting to get on track, someone gets sick or we start catching up on things we've been putting off so we could be social and spend time with people, and we are just as busy as ever! Stress is something that has been sneaking up on me. I don't feel stressed, until I start to become unstressed and I realize how I was before. Kind of like the saying "You never know a good thing until it's gone" except this was a bad thing! It doesn't help that I also have planned projects for this summer, and they are *trying* to be in full swing. They are a little overwhelming, but they have deadlines, so they cannot be put off!
So here's what I've learned so far this summer:
1) Don't start planning social events with people until you're a little more on track and organized after moving. It has become really hard to turn people down and say 'no' because after being away from everyone for a year, I want to catch up with them and spend as much time with them as possible. But we are going to be here for the whole summer so waiting a week won't hurt!
2) Don't stress about the details! Things are going to happen without your "permission" but if you really let those things get to you, then you'll always be miserable!
3) How to pack! I should be an expert packer by the time we finally settle down somewhere!
4) It is rejuvenating to have so many people to help us and encourage us. We've truly missed our friends and family here!