More Than Fluff

Today was one of my best days of work in a long time.  Perhaps that's because I spent minimal time actually in the office.  Arriving a little after 9 AM, my Scottish Work Friend (SWF) and I grabbed some breakfast in the cafeteria, gathered our belongings and headed over to the Habitat for Humanity team build project that our department volunteered for.  Habitat is a non profit based on the notion that every human should have a decent, safe and affordable place to live.  That's where us volunteers come in.

Our mission for the day:  insulate the ceiling of the third floor in a townhouse that will soon be occupied by a deserving family.  Having absolutely no experience in the construction world, the concept of building anything resembling a place where humans may want to live is extremely foreign.  Showing up at the construction site wearing contact lenses and no hat already put me at a huge disadvantage.  We broke up into small groups of 2 and 3 and began insulating.  See the way this room looks on the left?  That's kind of what we did today, except instead of the walls (which would have been a cinch compared to our project), we did the entire ceiling.  Shoving that cotton looking stuff any way we could around cable wires, electric sockets, 2 by 4s (I loved saying that word) and pipes.  Only it wasn't cotton, it's fiberglass. R-38 fiberglass, to be precise and it's no joke.  If you've never dealt with fiberglass before - take this as a warning: it gets into everything and feels like a thousand little splinters eating away at your flesh.  This includes your eyeballs if you're smart enough, like I was, to wear contact lenses instead of glasses.  We had work gloves, some dirty glasses and disposable face masks, but these didn't really help too much.  My SWF's husband said that people are supposed to wear disposable suits when dealing with fiberglass.  So glad we signed that waiver.

Anyhow, besides doing a good deed, I actually learned a couple of new things today in addition to how to insulate a home.  After I had put in a couple of rows of fiberglass into the ceiling with the General Counsel and I sharing a ladder, I went on a search for staples for our staple gun only to have another member of the department take my spot.  Not to worry, the Americore volunteer guiding us on today's build found a new job for me.  He handed me a broom, told me to stand at the very top of a ladder (see ladder above - that's what I was using), and asked me to start fluffing the fiberglass up into the ceiling beams as each strip of fiberglass was set up into the rafters.  So there I was, fluffing my little heart out, risking my life standing on top of the gigantic ladder, waving a broom into the fiberglass that was being inhaled into my lungs when the General Counsel of the department asked me why I had abandoned his team.

"I'm now a fluffer.  I was told to fluff," I responded.

This got a huge laugh from the group and all sorts of questions such as how badly did I want to fluff and how long had I been a fluffer? I sensed something dirty going on.  Turns out there's another meaning of fluffer.  According to Wikipedia.com:  

A fluffer is a hired member of the crew of a pornographic movie whose role on the set is to sexually arouse the male participants prior to the filming of scenes that require erections.

Commonly, fluffers keep adult film stars "cleaned up" in between takes so that the actors do not have to move from their positions. These duties, which do not necessarily involve touching the actors, are considered part of the makeup department. After setting up the desired angle, the director asks the actors to hold position and calls for the fluffer to "fluff" the actors for the shot. 

Clearly I am way too sheltered.  Not only was I the only person who had never heard of this term, but it seemed to be as common as if we were talking about the iPhone.  I guess you learn something new every day.  Now I just need to learn how to remove fiberglass from my lungs and clothing and I'll be all set.