I don’t think I’ve ever missed my clean home, my clean floors, my clean bed, the clean people I already know or just familiar settings as much as I did when I was in Seattle, Washington.

Instead I was in a huge city with homeless people constantly begging for money, barista’s I don’t know making my favorite drinks, and big crowds everywhere I went. For once I had to calm down and rethink where I was.

No familiar restaurants, no familiar people (besides the people that went with me) and not enough germ-X or body soap in the world to make me feel as clean as home.

I had to decline handshakes and receive rude and judgmental stares from strangers who obviously did not have “germaphobia” in their vocabulary.  I almost fell off every escalator for not wanting to touch the railing. I had to ride the monorail from hell and worry about everything I touched.

In all honesty, it was hard to feel clean there. But, thanks to my friends who went with me, I didn’t have to endure those uncomfortable stares from strangers alone. I always had someone to catch me on those escalators, and I never had to sit on the seats of the retched monorail.