Borked Pseudo Mailed
2009-04-28 20:17:40 UTC
When we worked in the locked mental facility, our boss was an
interesting study in mental health, herself.
I knew, from the interview, that my boss was no better off than
many of the patients that I'd be dealing with.
Nothing brought it home more clearly than her concern for
cleanliness. This was not a normal or typical concern for
cleanliness, but a full-out obsession. On occasion she would
feel the need to go through a patient's closet to see if they had
enough clothes. Before even going into their rooms, she would
don a disposable gown. Before she opened the closet doors, she
would snap on some latex gloves, for fear that she might actually
make contact with some form of dust or dirt.
Here in the Gay Area, this is a completely rational approach wheninteresting study in mental health, herself.
I knew, from the interview, that my boss was no better off than
many of the patients that I'd be dealing with.
Nothing brought it home more clearly than her concern for
cleanliness. This was not a normal or typical concern for
cleanliness, but a full-out obsession. On occasion she would
feel the need to go through a patient's closet to see if they had
enough clothes. Before even going into their rooms, she would
don a disposable gown. Before she opened the closet doors, she
would snap on some latex gloves, for fear that she might actually
make contact with some form of dust or dirt.
dealing with the dregs.
I have no idea why she was going through their closets, but anyone
poking around in a closet used by the various addicts, queers, and
dregs should be concerned about what will stick her (needles, razor
blades), what diseases may be lingering, and just the general filth of
the skanks and dregs.
I'd only poke around with a stick, in other words.
One time, there was a patient huddled up in a corner of the hall,
wrapped in a blanket and trying to be as small as possible to the
world. She and Kathy were walking by on their way someplace.
Kathy said "Don't you just want to hug him?"
Our boss shuddered visibly and said "EWWWWW! No!"
Besides being a recycled story from some months back, your boss waswrapped in a blanket and trying to be as small as possible to the
world. She and Kathy were walking by on their way someplace.
Kathy said "Don't you just want to hug him?"
Our boss shuddered visibly and said "EWWWWW! No!"
fully reasonable. That Kathy would want to hug some lice-infested,
shit-encrusted blanket person is .... typical.
Some of these blanket people infest the downtown Santa Cruz bookstores
(probaby other places, like the coffee houses, but I don't visit those
places). They stink up the chairs, leaving a reek of unwashed bodies
and, bluntly, fecal matter. I have thought about carrying a spray can
of Lysol with me, but mostly I have just decided that sitting in the
chairs is no longer an option.
Do ya recognize that all of the "evil" germs out there are pretty
much evenly dispersed everywhere, yet really relatively few
people catch the plethora of diseases available to just
everybody?
I guess you don't follow the news on AIDS, TB, and new forms of VD.much evenly dispersed everywhere, yet really relatively few
people catch the plethora of diseases available to just
everybody?
Nor, apropos of HP Jeannie's point about food workers holding diapered
babies as they prepare food, do you follow the reports of people dying
from e. coli outbreaks.
(One of the recent cases was of someone who died after eating fresh
salsa prepared in a Redwood City Mexican restaurant. The vector was
traced to an immigrant worker with, to put it politely, less than
pristine notions of personal hygiene and hand-washing behavior, who was
chopping up and handling the salsa ingredients. Those e. coli bugs
belong in your gut, or your baby's gut, not on your hands, and not in
food.)
Good to know you and Kathy like the idea of hugging the shit-caked
blanket people. Just don't double dip the chips next time you call
another of your "going away" scruzfests.
--Tim May