Please, wash your hands.... with soap.

So, I've got a thing about germs.  Not as bad as Howard Hughes opting to sit in a dark room alone with a "pee jar" or Howie Mandel fist-bumping his blood relatives instead of offering a hug, but I have to admit - I'm getting close.  As far as I'm concerned, life is one large germ following me and my children into a mildew corner of a wet basement.  I have my dear father to thank for this (and his sister who wears latex gloves to go food shopping). He's a germ-a-phobe like I've never seen.  He would bathe in antibacterial gel if it wouldn't cause dry skin or those silly 3rd degree burns.  Disney as a kid was interesting - getting padded down after each ride with antibacterial wipes like a inmate getting frisked - but now that I have kids of my own he makes perfect sense.  Let's face it - people are gross.  I'm sure at times I've been gross too.  Maybe forgetting as a kid to wash before dinner - or after riding on the school bus, but I am proud to say I have never (at least as long as I can remember) walked out of bathroom (public or not) without washing my hands.  My boys think I'm crazy for the frequency in which I REQUIRE them to wash their hands.  If NASA sold a anti-bacterial jumpsuit with matching face mask to the public in size small (and if it was socially acceptable) you had better believe I'd order them for the boys.  Bathrooms, amusement park rides, buffet areas, vending machines, public computer stations, grocery store check out areas, ATM's, not to mention airplane tray tables, subway turn-styles, and the deposit-rocket things at the bank drive-up window are breeding grounds for god knows what.  But whatever it is - I don't want to think about it.  I can only keep washing my hands, wait for someone to open the public bathroom door so I can walk out without touching anything - and maybe get some therapy.