/ Kate

today i coloured easter eggs with pastel crayons and then dyed them in bright blues and greens and oranges … including one that looks precisely like a watermelon. i also dumped a pile of change on michelle’s bed to sort through it, during which process she came in the room and promptly freaked out on me. something i have learned this year: money, apparently, is gross. after handling money at any time, you should wash your hands at the next possible opportunity. putting money on somebody’s bedspread is akin to the filthiest, vulgarest sin imaginable. i did apologise profusely.


and at the moment, i’m waiting for the other computer to be open so that i can use Word to print out an essay for the honors program at Duquesne. the reason it’s not open right now is simply a woman with wavy brown hair wearing a bright blue shirt, maroon cardigan, and a multicoloured broomstick skirt who is hunched over the keyboard typing in a document. i can’t even begin to get exasperated with her because she’s just such a doll of a woman with her well-worn leather purse and capable, sun-darkened fingers that painstakingly press the keys one by one. although i am tempted to offer to type up the rest of her paper.


i’m beginning to be very ready to come home.

10 thoughts on “”

  3. we used to drip hot burbling wax on raw eggs and then dunk them in color. then more burbling wax, and then more color. and so on and so forth. until, when you scrape off the wax, and pin-prick a hole in each end, and blow with all your might, until the egg-yolk-and-white, would come dripping out one end, you would be left with a multi-colored tie-dyed hollow shell in one piece.
    good memories.
    and, newsflash for your friends. money is no more gross than any other well-touched item they unknowingly come in contact with moment after moment every single day. their own fingertips are much likely far more infested with germs than the money. you’re a live, warm, breathing host for germs. money is not. and if you just decide to buck up and bear it, and accept it for what it’s worth, you stand a good chance at coming away from it with a strong-and-grand immune system.
    in other words, katie maurice, handle that money for all it’s worth. (no pun intended.)
    and then lick your fingers afterwards.
    [not really.]

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  4. I saw this sign in a shop, once:”El dinero lleva microbios. No se contamine – gastela aqui!”Transated: Money carries microbes. Don’t get contaminated – spend it here!On some reflection, it does seem reasonable that money, be it coin or bill, should in fact provide an excellent substrate for teeming and festering colonies of critters, germs, and nasties. Like computer keyboards and mice, money rarely gets disinfected. Be careful! (And send me all your computer mice; those things can be dangerous to your health!)

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  5. *out comes the soapbox*
    and what about cameras, lipstick/chapstick tubes, telephones, CDs, jewelry, videotapes? what about your plate at restaurants? how many people touch that? people in the kitchen, and then it’s either carried out by hand or on a tray. and then handed to you. what about your eating utensils? somebody has to handle them when getting them out of the dishwasher and into the silverware drawer or napkin-rolling. what about shaking someone’s hand? or pushing a grocery cart? and –worse!– touching your own skin (like your face) after touching something else. way to spread those germs.
    there is no total escape from that which you touch. start cleansing yourself after every touching experience with money and, under that logic, you may as well be “obligated” to cleanse yourself after every other “little” thing as well. and really, that much hand washing is not good for your skin. I have a friend who’s a perpetual handwasher after every little thing (a germaphobic. especially when it comes to handling money) and her hands are like sandpaper.
    there are tons and tons of things covered in microbes. my philosophy: deal with it. they’re there. and once your immune system tackles it, you’re stronger anyway.
    *puts away soapbox*

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  6. sheesh, y’all. a few germs don’t kill no body. I’ve tuched far grosser things than money and then eaten or something without washing my hands with soap. think back a few hundred years: we didn’t know a thing about microbs and so forth and people didn’t die from biting gold money to make sure it was real. people eat raw meat! sheesh, if you think somethings gross, get over it. it could be far worse.

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