The first time I realized that I might have obsessive compulsive disorder was when I noticed that I was washing my hands close to a 100 times a day. Exaggeration? Absolutely not.

How many times do you wash your hands per day ? If you say zero, we can’t be friends anymore. You should at the very least be washing your hands (for a full 60 seconds with soap and hot water-duh) before cooking and of course after using the little girls and/or boys room. VERY MINIMUM.

According to this fabulous website: www.ocdtypes.com, washing and cleaning rituals are the most well-known and widely recognized symptoms of OCD. People with this type of OCD can be described as perpetually engaged in compulsive acts of decontamination. Yep, that’s me.

Let’s start by discussing normal hand-washing tendencies:

1. Most importantly, after using the restroom, this is a must. It should be a law. If I were president, I would have cameras installed by all bathroom sinks (not in the stalls, that would be sick), but by the sink, in order to catch those who don’t wash. Hello, who wants to shake your grimy hand if you don’t? Simple answer, no one.
2. Before cooking, especially when cooking for others. Please and thank you.
3. After handling money- gross. Don’t you know how dirty money is… especially if you find a lipstick kiss on a bill-  at that point you know it came from a strip club- right? Throw it away. It’s not worth it.
4. After going to the grocery store, using handrails, any type of public transportation, using communal pens (you know, restaurants, banks..etc), I bring my own- weird yes- but I do. I don’t share either.

I’d say these are the normal occasions. Let me walk you through a small portion of my day…

Wake up. wash my hands. go to the bathroom. wash my hands. take a shower. wash my hands. get dressed and make the bed. wash my hands. do my make-up and hair. wash my hands. make breakfast. wash my hands (sometimes 3-4 times to make sure they are clean before eating). eat breakfast. wash my hands. take the dogs out. wash my hands. go to the bathroom (again, so I don’t need to use public restrooms), wash my hands.

So before I even leave the house, I’ve generally washed my hands between 10-15 times.  I won’t go through the whole day because that would be boring (ok, sad), but you get the idea.

If I am unable to wash my hands, I always have hand sanitizer. Purell is my favorite, the one with Aloe,to keep your hands from cracking and bleeding (ah-blood!). Ethyl-Alcohol acts as my own personal form of perfume.

I mean some of the scents they have now are great… Apple Lavender, Wildberry Dahila, Raspberry Pink Peony, Fresh Picked Peaches, Sugar Lemon Fizz, Mango Mai Tai (yum) and of course you can’t forget “I love cake.” Who needs perfume when you can smell like fresh picked peaches, am I right or am I right?

So, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you have just, shook hands, touched a door handle, handled money, used a pen at a restaurant, grocery store, or bank and of course used the rest room and “forgot” (yea-right) to wash your hands, and are in desperate need of some hand sanitizer, I AM YOUR GIRL.

Oh, there is only one rule, you can’t touch my sanitizer. I will drop some into your grimy, grimy hand. Got it? 🙂

xo