Disgusting handshake!

[moneyminded]

So... I stopped by to talk to a "professional" yesterday.  During our conversation I saw him put the end of his thumb up his nose and twist it a few times.  I remember thinking "I hope he doesn't try to shake my hand after this conversation".  Well, you guessed it. He did and I shook it back.  Ewwww!  So grossed out.  Got to my car and handsanitized and washed my hands once I got back to the office.  I mean really?  How disgusting is that?  What would you have done?

[milee]

People really are gross.  Most of the time, as awkward as it is, I'm not quick enough to come up with a good, socially acceptable excuse not to shake, so I end up rushing to wash my hands.  Once in a while, I'll think quickly enough to pull off the polite, "Oh, gosh, I'm fighting a cold and don't want to give you my germs" and give them a nice little wave. 

Sorry you had to touch this troglodyte.

[resolution]

I have that problem at church every Sunday where you shake hands with everyone directly before you take mass and they put the wafer in your hand to eat. So I watch the people around me cough and sneeze into their hands, the kids stick their hands in their mouths, then we all shake hands and get some bread in the same hand to put into my mouth.

DH already thinks I'm a germaphobe because I won't drink wine out of the common cup, but I don't believe that the Good Lord automatically kills germs just because its church.

[cael]

Yuck. One of the cops we work with (we only work with cops in difficult situations, so the people we see are usually less than normal/clean...) says "I don't shake on the first date" when crazy/gross people try to shake his hand. I've decided I need to adopt that one

[chiver78]

I find myself pleading illness most of the time, it was worse when I was actively working with a guy that I knew picked his nose and (as a male germophobe colleague told me) didn't wash his hands after using the restroom either. we'd be meeting engineers and architects and shaking hands all around. before I started pleading sickness to avoid a shake, I found myself excusing myself mid-meeting to go wash my hands.

yeah, I'm bad.

[Regis]

Aug 8, 2013 8:05:35 GMT -5 resolution said:

I have that problem at church every Sunday where you shake hands with everyone directly before you take mass and they put the wafer in your hand to eat. So I watch the people around me cough and sneeze into their hands, the kids stick their hands in their mouths, then we all shake hands and get some bread in the same hand to put into my mouth.

DH already thinks I'm a germaphobe because I won't drink wine out of the common cup, but I don't believe that the Good Lord automatically kills germs just because its church.

I'm a eucharistic minister at our church so I offer sacramental wine during mass.  Once everyone has received communion, the ministers finish the wine that's in the chalice.  I've always wondered what kind of germs I'm ingesting from all the others who drank the wine before me.  So far, I don't believe I've contracted an illness from the chalice.

[resolution]

Aug 8, 2013 8:49:07 GMT -5 Regis said:

Aug 8, 2013 8:05:35 GMT -5 resolution said:

I have that problem at church every Sunday where you shake hands with everyone directly before you take mass and they put the wafer in your hand to eat. So I watch the people around me cough and sneeze into their hands, the kids stick their hands in their mouths, then we all shake hands and get some bread in the same hand to put into my mouth.

DH already thinks I'm a germaphobe because I won't drink wine out of the common cup, but I don't believe that the Good Lord automatically kills germs just because its church.

I'm a eucharistic minister at our church so I offer sacramental wine during mass.  Once everyone has received communion, the ministers finish the wine that's in the chalice.  I've always wondered what kind of germs I'm ingesting from all the others who drank the wine before me.  So far, I don't believe I've contracted an illness from the chalice.

You are very fortunate in that regard. Our priest is sick all the time and he is frequently up there asking people to stay home if they have the flu and reminding them its not a mortal sin to miss mass if you are contagious.

[sarcasticgirl]

UGH! i just gagged. I would have mumbled something about being sick and not passing my germs. 

[Wisconsin Beth]

I've started saying "you don't want to shake hands with me, I was chewing on my fingers" as I've recently started up again this nasty habit.   

I suppose next time you're talking with this guy, you can stop him mid-twist and offer him a kleenex. 

[alabamagal]

I had to go to France for work for a couple of weeks.  Everyone shakes hands with everyone every day.  N ot just with people you are introduced to, but everyone.  I would go into a meeting every morning and you would shake hands with everyone around the room when you walked in.  I was probably at 40-50 handshakes per day.  And I was sick from the trick, but it was rude not to shake hands.  I am not a germophobe, but did not care for all the handshakes.

Kind of reminded me of the ESPN commercial where they do the "spit handshake" and then wonder why everyone was sick.

[Clever Username]

For us Catholics, historically the sign of peace used to be kissing, not hand shaking.

Most difficult handshake for me was as a teenager.
Meeting the parents for the first time before a date.
Incomplete hand.

I never got the courage up to ask.

[chiver78]

I remember that from my time there too, georgiagal. one guy actually was quite ill one trip, and he would offer up his elbow with a sheepish "je suis contaminé" instead.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Eons ago, I read that Catholic churches in Africa do an Elbow of Peace touching due to the problem of germs passing on. 

[milee]

Aug 8, 2013 15:42:37 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

Eons ago, I read that Catholic churches in Africa do an Elbow of Peace touching due to the problem of germs passing on. 

I love the idea of the Elbow of Peace.  Let's try to start this trend here!!!

[moneyminded]

Whew!  I am not the only one.  @wi Beth - you had me laughing out loud at "mid-twist".  I think I will start feigning illness coming on as in "I AM GOING TO PUKE IF I SHAKE YOUR HAND" kind of illness.  That should work.   As a side note, can you get Hep C from drinking from a cup used by someone infected by same? 

[motherto2]

My mom worked with the most socially inept man I've ever heard of in my life.  For those faint of heart, please stop reading now.  He used to put his hands in his pockets and play pocket pool, but it wasn't just a few swishes.  He would literally lift his leg and go to town.  He also picked his nose constantly.  She said you could see his trophies that he wiped all over the wall at his desk.  She had to go on travel with him to CA once (this is literally across country from us).  I can't remember all the particulars, but one highlight I do remember is they were only allowed one rental car so she had to go to dinner with him, and the end of the meal signaled it was time for him to pick up his plate and lick it clean.  She came back so mad at her supervisor that she stomped into his office and told him in no uncertain terms that if he EVER tried to send her on travel with that guy again, she would quit her job right on the spot.  He also did something with his hair, but don't remember what that was now.  And of course, it goes without saying, he didn't bathe on a regular basis.  And he didn't save these savory actions for fellow workers, he would do that around very high supervisors and visitors.  Not sure how he managed to keep his job all those years.  I think I just threw up a little in my mouth remembering the stories .

Oh and I thought they stopped drinking out of the same cup at church some years ago?  I'd have to forego communion.

[toomuchreality]

Gross!
I think I just threw up in my mouth a LOT!

I thought that in churches where a common chalice was used, they had the option of a separate paper cup (single/individual size). But to be honest, I've never been to a church that used a common chalice. So
Do they consider it a lack of faith, if you don't drink from the same cup everyone else did?

I don't eat at places where the public has access to the food. If I think about it much, I couldn't eat anywhere except home, unless I watch the food get prepared. Even then I wonder about the food, up to that point.
I don't consider myself a germ-a-phobe. I just don't want to eat something nasty!
Or touch anything nasty either, going back to the original post.

I'm always surprised when someone holds out their hand, after they've watched another person do something gross.

Yuck!

ETA- I have said "No (or I'm sorry), I need to wash my hands."  I don't give any further excuse or reason.

[resolution]

The Catholic church still uses a common cup. Because the doctrine is that the wine turns into the blood of Christ, and you can't just out the leftover blood of Christ that would be in all the small individual cups; it stays in one cup and the priest drinks the remainder.

It is not considered a lack of faith to skip the cup. The blood is also present in the flesh, so its just fine to take the wafer and then go back to your pew.

About half of my church drinks the wine and the other half just walks past it on the way back to the pew. My DH drinks the wine but he has a strong constitution and gets sick less often than I do. 

[garion2003]

pocket sized hand sanitizers. a lifesaver.

At the church I attend sometimes you are given the wafer: you can either 1) eat it and then drink out of the cup as traditional, or you can 2) hold on to the wafer for a sec and dip it into the wine and consume both together.

I always choose option 2 (known as "intinction").

[8 Bit WWBG]

This is exactly the kind of stuff that will be even more of a problem now that people don't have their own desks anymore.  You have no way of knowing who or what used the desk before you, and whether or not they practice good hygiene.

Too many handshakes always makes me think of that Seinfeld episode where Jerry refuses to hug people.

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

Got to my car and handsanitized and washed my hands once I got back to the office. I mean really? How disgusting is that? What would you have done?

Maybe you should have wiped your hand on his sleeve to let him know how gross the handshake was after he'd done the nostril-hunting.

[Nazgul Girl]

   If you dip the wafer in the wine that everyone has been drinking from, wouldn't the "intinction" still be using wine that was full of germs ?    My daughter is a devout Catholic and I suggested that she stop drinking from the chalice, at least during flu season, but she's not having any of that.   She still takes the blood of Christ along with the body of Christ.

[spartan7886]

Aug 9, 2013 15:36:27 GMT -5 Nazgul Girl said:

   If you dip the wafer in the wine that everyone has been drinking from, wouldn't the "intinction" still be using wine that was full of germs ?   

That's what we did in the church I grew up in. The only thing that touched the wine was the bread (we used a loaf instead of wafers), not your fingers. I guess it was the end of the bread that the person serving it had touched, but since he did everybody's, it was only one person's germs, not the whole church's.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Aug 9, 2013 15:36:27 GMT -5 Nazgul Girl said:

   If you dip the wafer in the wine that everyone has been drinking from, wouldn't the "intinction" still be using wine that was full of germs ?    My daughter is a devout Catholic and I suggested that she stop drinking from the chalice, at least during flu season, but she's not having any of that.   She still takes the blood of Christ along with the body of Christ.

Interesting.  I often skip the Common chalice, esp if I'm at the back of the line or if I'm sick.  Our priest has said it's perfectly fine to skip if you're sick or don't want to partake but respect should be shown (via crossing ourselves with a bowed head as we pass) and I often do that.  I'm currently a very lapsed Catholic though. 

[formerroomate99]

I've read somewhere that they did studies on the common chalices and found that as long as the server has enough sense to properly wipe the cup, the wine pretty much kills everything. Though I still don't bother with the wine anymore.

As for the whole handshake thing, other studies have found that close to half the population, (and a much higher proportion of the male population), don't bother to wash their hands after going to the bathroom, so dealing with Mr Booger Finger is really the least of your worries (assuming he's not sick). If you care at all about germs, then shaking ANYBODY'S hand is reason to wash and sanitize your hands.