Summer fun and going about my business in spite of OCD

I have stayed busy this summer even though it hasn't looked much like summer around here. It is raining alot right now. It was nice earlier today and me and my daughter went and picked strawberries. I have always wanted to do that and finally did. It is alot of work but it was rewarding. It's not so easy bending and squatting and all that. I want to make some strawberry shortcake with them on the 4th. Oh ya, a bit of an OCD issue when we got to the strawberry farm. I gave our containers to the person to weigh before picking and her hands had alot of cuts on them and a bandaid. Usually I'd be like now I can't do this but I told myself her hands are probably like that from working hard on the farm and I just talked myself out of being too worried. I even ate a strawberry while picking, that I didn't wash and I didn't wash my hands either. I'm proud of myself. I have a few more issues I think I have been a big girl about. I went to a chinese garden the other day and the man who rang us up seemed like he might have been gay. I guess I'm stero-typing and again I am not predjudice, it all has to do with my OCD and fear of aids. I took the brochure he gave me and didn't wash my hands.
I took my daughter to get an italian soda the other day and it seemed to me because of the way the guy talked that was making it could have been gay and had tattoos. He cut and squeezed fresh pomegrante juice into our drinks and that made me uncomfortable but I drank it anyway.
One other issue I had was when we went out for Chinese food on my husband's birthday. I thought the waiter was gay and this is a big fear of mine. I ate my food anyway and was a big girl about it. I am proud of myself.
I am taking advantage of the library this summer by using passed they have to get into places in the city for free. So far it was the Children's museum last week and the Chinese garden. I actually found my way to the Children's museum without taking any wrong turns or getting off the path even though I've been that way alot but only once or twice a year. I am so directionally challenged it's not even funny.
My son and I helped with Vacation Bible school a few weeks ago at our church also. We had fun. We were in with the first grade class and it was big. It was a great experience.

Hope everyone is having a great summer and have a happy Fourth of July.

I haven't written anything in a while. I just haven't really felt like writing anything about OCD. Sometimes it  feels like I'm bragging about it or something which it is nothing to brag about. I can make it sound humorous which it's really not either. I do try to look for humor in the situation because it can help me alot with it. If I can find humor in it then there is a light. It's amazing how OCD can drain my energy. I feel great and then my husband mows the lawn and comes inside and he did wash his hands but to me they still aren't clean. The reason is still because of the antifreeze that is in the shed with the lawn mower. It was in the garage but I had my husband move it because I'd rather have it in the shed than the garage.
Now to a person without OCD this will sound bizarre but I am going to share a story about the book I checked out at the library yesterday. I got this book that I was really excited about reading. It was a book on food fermentation which I'm really interested in. So, I get the book and what do ya know the author has AIDS. Some of you might already know what my OCD mind is thinking and "normal" minds wouldn't dream of this. I didn't want the book anymore because somehow maybe the author had touched the book or other people with AIDS and so on. I know it's stupid but that's how I think. I put the books on the floor in my car and wanted to get rid of them as soon as possible. I put them in a plastic grocery bag so I could dispose of them at the library without touching them again. My daughter wanted to take them so I let her but told her how to do it. I hate it when I have to tell people how I want them to do something to avoid contamination or explain why I do something because I don't want them to have to participate in the ritualization and it's makes me sound very weird, even to myself when I am speaking it out loud. The books fell on the ground when she was trying to return them and the bag got stuck in the return thing. I was sitting in the car watching her but was far enough away she wouldn't be able to hear me. I felt bad because I know she probably was wondering what she should do next since I didn't want her to touch the books. When she got back to the car I gave her a wet wipe. Then, she took her earring off and started rubbing her ear. Oh great! She never takes her earring off normally unless she is changing them. I had a major episode for a few years after she got her ears pierced. I was so afraid she may had gotten hiv and then eventually had her tested when she had blood drawn for another reason.
Life in the OCD lane is very interesting is all I can say.