Hey, you tried to be a grown-up and take more responsibility when you applied for that other position.

Right. I wonder if they ever filled that.

I get tired of being a Teachable Moment About Difficult Topics when I go where kids are.

You need a t-shirt: Not a bloody Afterschool Special.

Granted, the properly evolved human wouldn't blink an eye, but I figure I'd be either trying too hard to pretend everything was normal or shamefully flinching.

Practice makes perfect, and that co-worker isn't always going to be able to run. When she can't it's going to be a more uncomfortable situation, perhaps for all concerned.

When I was growing up I had a friend whose dad's arm was deformed. I tried really hard not to stare at it but sometimes I did without realizing it. If he noticed he never said anything. He was a very cool dad.

Yeah, I know! I mean, sometimes it feels good, even though it is an extra responsibility, but sometimes I feel like a certain kind of parent sees me and says "There's one!" and crosses me off, next to Pet Death. Acknowledging contagion anxiety is not the same thing as it being okay to indulge it.

My best friend when I was little had one leg amputated below the knee. I never found out why. I wanted to be handicapped like him. I think my parents handled it fairly well.

Erika, I'm totally with you on not wanting to have to be the one to teach someone else's kids about disability. The worst are when parents come up to you with their kids and ask me to explain my disability to them. It hasn't happened in a while, thank goodness.

The worst are when parents come up to you with their kids and ask me to explain my disability to them.

What? People actually do that? That's ... remarkably rude.

Totally rude.

"I am not a lesson-on-request."

but sometimes I feel like a certain kind of parent sees me and says "There's one!" and crosses me off, next to Pet Death.

I think I just spit on my cat by accident. The picture of that list is so clear in my head.