Monday, October 20

A Long Week

It's beginning to be that time of year when I really start to miss fall in the Midwest. I love cozy sweaters and cool, crisp fall weather and watching the leaves on the trees slowly turn to a rainbow of earthy colors. The many colors of fall don't really make an appearance here in southern California, and if they do the sight is always ruined by a stray palm tree here and there. The cool weather, on the other hand, is just now beginning to turn mornings into definite sweater weather. Working at the Villa, I'm outside a lot of the time--especially in the mornings when we organize for school groups--so I've been happy to pull out my sweaters to keep me warm on those cool mornings. It was a very long, quiet week.

As cooler weather arrived this week and more kids pour into the museum, I was reminded I'm doomed to fight a losing battle this season. I work in a public place, and a lot of my audience members are kids. Or, as I like to think of them, repositories of vicious rhinoviruses that are just waiting to take on my immune system as their next challenge. This weekend I had a particularly cute group of four and five-year-olds and their parents for my Art Odyssey family tour. The lesson I was doing with them was mainly based in storytelling about heroes and monsters, so I asked everyone to sit around on the floor in front of the object we were talking about. One of the littlest ones seemed to think I was the greatest thing since sliced bread and curled up in my lap to settle in. Most teachers would have taken this as a positive sign that at least some of her audience was engaged. Instead, my first thought was that I should double my dose of Airborne for the day. These little half-pint museum goers are my cutest and most entertaining audience, but there is danger lurking behind those toothless grins. I fortify my defenses with hand sanitizer, incredibly high doses of vitamin C, and super immunity boosting multi-vitamins, but who knows for sure how much it helps my chances of dodging a bullet? The long winter siege has begun.

Time to plop an Airborne.

5 comments:

  1. Hmmm... I just heard from someone that Airborne was scientifically proven ineffective and now there are lawsuits against the product... stick with the hand sanitizer. :-)

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  2. Goodness, girlie! Imagine working in a clinic this time of year! I either have the little germ-carrier monkeys throwing up on me, or their parents hacking their infected sputum in my face as I take their blood pressure. There is no amount of adequate pay for that! Just think: those adorable lordotic curtain climbers are strengthening your immune sysytem! At least that's what I tell myself!

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  3. Okay, so with Airborne I guess I'm just going for a placebo effect...

    And Summmer--sputum? Bleh! Believe it or not, we've had visitors throwing up on tours from time to time. I agree with you--there is no amount of adequate pay for that kind of thing!

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  4. i live in boston, and i'd just like to tell you, from all of us living in the northeast, you suck.
    :P

    btw, i'll curl up in your lap next time i visit and you give me a tour ;) just don't tell eric!

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  5. Totally--next time you're on the left coast you should definitely come by for a tour! You'll have to share my lap though. :-)

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