Huh? My Sears card? WTF?

If you work in healthcare, you get (or should) regular training in infection control. One of the main lessons is that you have to keep your hands clean. Transmission by contact is one of the main ways disease spreads.

Even before I got into this field, I was big on cleanliness, but now I'm even more concerned. So when I grabbed a pole in the subway tonight and felt something sticky on it, I immediately wanted to wash. At Penn, there was a line for the Men's Room, so I went to Plan B.

There's a Kmart in Penn, and they have a pharmacy section. Since Plan B involved getting some Purell waterless hand cleanser, I headed there. I quickly grabbed a small bottle of Purell and headed for the checkout. When I got there, my purchase came to $1.72 with tax.

"Do you want to put that on your Sears card?" Huh? I'm not sure if it was how she spoke or pure confusion, but I had to have her repeat that.

My Sears card? At Kmart? I guess I missed that announcement. More to the point, when I'm already holding out two dollar bills to pay, why would she want to waste the time of everyone behind me by getting me to charge $1.72?

Yes, I'm sure she was told to ask, but shouldn't common sense come into things at some point?

Speaking of sticky poles (or potentially sticky), I'm on my train home now, and I'm sitting across from a guy whose pole I'd like to see! We've exchanged pleasantries, and my gaydar tells me he's definitely a teammate.

He's not my usual type. He has a shaved head (not normally my thing, but sometimes--like on him, where it just works) and big arms. He also had a tattoo on one bulging bicep. I'm not usually into tattoos either, but, again, it works for him.

I guess the main thing is that he has a nice smile, and he has been friendly. Honestly, I've always been a sucker :-) for a nice smile. *sigh*

"Hey, Bokey, he followed me home. Can we keep him?" :-D