Weekend Plate: Microphobia

Between a semester of microbiology and becoming a certified ServSafe instructor, this year I’ve become hyper microbe aware. This is what it’s doing to my life:

• When someone sneezes I find myself curious to the nature of the Gram stain it would produce. 
• When I cook in my apartment all I can think is ‘TCS FOOD! Must refrigerate now!’.
• No longer any question as to why my mother would press elevator buttons with her elbow.
• I can’t eat ground beef. Thanks a lot biology coliform test. I was better off not knowing.
• I see a salad bar and wonder how long it took restaurants to adopt ‘sneeze guards’…and even with the guard, I still avoid said salad bar. 

Then again, microbes help us make beer and cheese, so I’m semi-appreciative.