July 2008
127 posts
1 tag
clack clack reassurance
After sending an important business email I have to, immediately, read my saved copy and clack my teeth together at the end of the first sentence and nod my head, then read it again clacking twice, finishing with a third pass with 3 clacks. Otherwise, panic attacks begin.
1 tag
uneven sleeping
When I sleep, my body can’t be level. I generally prop one leg up on something, like the back of a couch, and put my arms above my head on the pillow. For this reason, I find it much easier to sleep on couches than beds.
1 tag
dedication and commitment
If I start a book, I have to finish it, even if it’s a terrible book and I hate it. I also can’t start any new books until I finish the book I’m currently reading. It’s as if the book will hate me and I will be a bad, bad person if I don’t remain monogamous to the book until the very end. I can’t leave a movie until the credits are finished, for the same reason.
1 tag
kidnap prevention
i can’t enter my house if there is a car driving down the street cause then they would know where I lived and could kidnap me. If cars are driving down the street i’ll continue walking by my house until all the cars are gone.
1 tag
31, 32, __, 34
I avoid consecutive number threes whenever possible. Spelling it out doesn’t bother me (thirty three), unlike seeing the numbers. In fact, I had to wait until there were (1 of 34) pages on this site to feel comfortable posting.
1 tag
seat warmer
Any time I attend an event and sit down and the chair is warm, I have to move. I can’t sit in someone else’s butt heat, it really grosses me OUT!
grown-up shoe tying
When I tie my shoes, I go for the easier bunny-ears-crossed-into-a-simple knot method. Unless of course I’m convinced someone is watching me. If I even think someone sees me about to tie my shoe, I use the trickier, more grown-up loop-wraparound-underneath technique.
flat food
When I am eating rectangular food such as granola bars, I have to have the side that I’m eating from flat. It takes me three times as long to eat it, but if it has the little corners on the side from the previous bite, I can’t take another bite.
never a collapsing tree
I have a fear of heights that seems to be reserved exclusively for man-made objects. I could be in a tree 20-feet in the air and be completely fine, but if I stand on a roof I have a panic attack that the entire structure will collapse beneath me.
3:58, 3:59, 4:00
I have to watch a clock change every hour, on the hour…even at night i set my alarm 2 minutes before the hour change and reset for the next hour…i haven’t had a good night sleep because of it in nearly 5 years.
warm jewelry
I get physically ill at the thought of touching someone else’s jewelry. I can’t explain why, but the idea of holding an earring or ring that has been warmed by their body heat is nauseating.
empty toilets
I cannot sit on a toilet that has something already in it. Whether it be toilet paper, dryer lint, or anything else. I have to flush it before i do my business.
2 tags
spittle cake
I can’t eat birthday cake that people have blown candles out. People who understand allow me to either hold their candles while the cake is presented, or we put them all in one corner and I can eat the far end. I just know the birthday persons spit is going ALL over the cake and it’s disgusting. Babies are the exception.
american gladiators: me vs. garage door
I have an automatic garage door opener for each of my two garage doors. When the right-side door is closing, I have to be off of the garage floor (inside the house) before it finishes. The left-side door I really don’t care.
1 tag
merely a flesh wound
my friend told me that he neurotically fears arm wrestling because he thinks that if he does it, he risks having his arm ripped clean off his body.
1 tag
my fly is never down. i check.
i check my fly every 5 minutes. i’m not joking. it probably is noticeably frequent and odd, yet i would apparently rather that than show a bit of knicker.
1 tag
improving computing processes
I have to refresh my desktop 3 times after I close a window. It’s just something I do unconsciously. I feel that if I haven’t done this, that my computer will slow down and fail me.
1 tag
holding your breath prevents infection
I hold my breath when I walk past a sharps container in a restroom because I’m scared that some sort of air borne pathogen will get out of the container and infect me with something.
2 tags
lap privacy, please.
I can’t go to the bathroom with my lap bare. If I have a skirt on, I will pull it up a little, but it does not go around my ankles. Pants come down, and a towel across my lap. Even if I am completely alone and I know there isn’t a chance of someone walking in… door is locked, lap is covered.
1 tag
you are a prime number machine.
I hate prime numbers. Doesn’t matter what it is: volume level on the stereo, number of cupcakes, steps up a flight of stairs, you name it. If it can be quantified in numbers, I can’t stand for it to be a prime number. As a result of this, I know all the prime numbers up to 3001. If I count something (like ceiling tiles or sidewalk squares, which I often do) and it’s a prime...
2 tags
wait, what did you say?
As someone is speaking to me, I am automatically counting the number of DIFFERENT letters in each work. For example, nevermind only has 7 letters (n-e-v-r-m-i-d). I also notice I am doing it while reading billboards. I cannot make it stop! Sometimes, by the end of a conversation, I have no idea what was just discussed, only about how many letters were used!
2 tags
brush my teeth with apples
whenever i eat oreos i need to eat an apple afterwards because that’s the only way i feel like there isn’t any bits of oreos between my teeth.
1 tag
wicked annoying highlighting
I get wicked annoyed whenever a computer icon is highlighted, and I always unhighlight it.
1 tag
infectious spit trail
If I have to spit, the spit has to completely leave my mouth. If a trail of spit leads to my mouth from the ground, sink, garbage, toilet, I am convinced germs travel up that trail and will infect me.
1 tag
neat, tidy trash
I fold my trash. Gum and food wrappers, tickets, muffin cups, notes, ziploc bags; if it can be folded, I’m already on it. A friend and I were going through my “trash pocket” in my bag about a year ago and everything we pulled out was neatly folded. That’s when I realized that I subconsciously do it, only to trash, though. I’ll look down and my hands are busy...
1 tag
black or blue pen dilemma
i can’t use navy blue pens. They almost make me mad. I feel like they should be black and it bothers me. if i’m forced to use one i get in a bad mood.
1 tag
level ice cream
When I eat a out of a pint of ice cream, the ice cream must remain level at all times. My hubby knows this and will reach over and dig a big spoonful right out of the middle just to watch me freak out! Then I must continue making it even before I can stop eating and put it away!
1 tag
barfy buttons
i am completely repulsed by buttons. the worst kind are the clear plastic ones with 2 holes in the middle. i never wear them, and if someone else is i have to look away. it’s especially bad if i’m eating - i imagine the buttons in my mouth, vomiting up huge waves of them. i cannot bear hearing them clink as they go around the tumble dryer. it’s led to a phobia of thrift/second...
1 tag
ventilation issues
I can’t have the middle vent on the center console of my car be open and not aligned straight and at a 90 degree angle. If anyone messes with it, I have to fix it immediately.
1 tag
avoiding bad breathe phone calls
Whenever I’m about to make an important call, it may be something for my work or a date, first I have to brush my teeth or everything will go wrong.
perfect, beautiful books
I can’t read a used book. Books (hard or soft cover) can’t have a single blemish or bend on the cover. When a book is too used I’m too distracted to continue reading it. I also cannot associate myself with people who dog ear pages.
1 tag
repackaged for the next person
Whenever I am throwing food away that has a wrapper or paper that it can be enclosed in such as a cheeseburger from a fast food place or popcorn in a bag, I have to re-wrap or close the food in the wrapper/bag. If I don’t I feel like someone homeless that’s scavenging for food will get mad at me for leaving it open.
1 tag
don't breathe on me
I can’t face the same way as my spouse at night. His breathing on me can interfere with my sleep and suffocate me.
1 tag
infrequent index toe nail clippings
I can’t stand having my index toe (the one next to my big toe) touched. I only clip its toenail about 1/3 as often as all the others, because touching it is absolutely disgusting to me.
1 tag
unjinxing the deck
Before I play any card game, I have to first, put the card in numerical/face order (1-K, Clubs, Spades, Diamonds, Hearts,) and then, shuffle four times. If I don’t do this, the game will be jinxed.
1 tag
slow and steady prevent accidents
If I am walking up a staircase, I must either hold the railing or walk extremely slow. If I don’t do this, I will trip on a step, fall on my face, and subsequently knock out my front teeth on the edge of a step. This is twenty times more scary when I am holding too many objects to grab the railing.
1 tag
bathroom buddy
I have to take my cell phone with me whenever I go to the bathroom, even my own, just in case I get locked in and need to call someone to get me out.
1 tag
!! !!!
I cannot stand whenever anyone uses two exclamation points. If there must be more than one, it should be three or a multiple of three. You would not believe how many times this mistake is made in advertising.
2 tags
lucky color red
I have to touch red for 10 seconds if i see a royal mail van or else i will get bad luck.
2 tags
no butt exposure
i can’t show any cheek flesh when i change into my workout clothes at the gym i will first back my behind into an open locker and then i take off my top first then put on a giant t-shirt, then take my pants off so no rear end shot is out..and after my workout i take the pants off with a giant shirt left on so no cheek is exposed.
1 tag
untagged
Whenever I am on a bed (mine or someone elses), tags cannot be near me. Whether its from a pillow or a blanket, I cannot think or move until it is as far away from me as possible. Pillows with tags end up on the floor, tags of covered pillows have to be on the inside of the case, and blanket tags either have to be cut off or on the bottom of the bed, farthest from my feet.
1 tag
what if no one were around to perform the heimlich...
Each morning, when I take my daily vitamins I have to look out the window that’s over my kitchen sink. I will choke if I do it any other way.
2 tags
what's that over there? sniff
I can’t eat my food without smelling it first. Before each and every bite, I have a strong urge to take a whiff. To avoid the awkward, “are you smelling your food?” comment I get from some, I pretend to see something in the distance while I hold the bite by my mouth in smelling distance.
2 tags
communal cheese
I can’t eat cheese off public platters at parties. For some reason, I think that cheese is like a sponge and can absorb more germs than other foods. It’s gross to me. And I picture someone touching the piece of cheese I might want..or brushing their finger against it because they’re trying to get to another piece. Just Gross.
1 tag
indentation prevention
i cannot stand my handwriting pressing onto many pieces of paper. i put an extra piece of paper underneath the one i am writing on so the others won’t get harmed.
1 tag
crystal comfort
When I get anxious or stressed out, sometimes the only thing that calms me down is grasping a small piece of quartz in my fist. It can’t be any other mineral. I usually carry a crystal in my pocket for just this reason.
1 tag
sharp point down
i do not like cutlery to be placed face up in the dishwasher. I f i am at some one else’s house, i turn them all round the other way when they’re not in the room.
1 tag
meetings are stressful
Sometimes when I am in long meetings or presentations, I have to count the number of syllables in the words the presenter is saying, with my fingers or toes, or I get very nervous.
1 tag
scary mirror
I avoid looking into mirrors. I fear someone will be standing behind me or they will have taken the place of my reflection. A quick glance before I go out in public is all the mirror sees of me.
2 tags
perfect iPod formatting
All the songs in my iPod have to be in the same format - no CAPS, no missing information…
