Monday, November 9, 2009

Slightly Crazy

I always joke that I have a slightly obsessive compulsive personality. I don’t mean that I have to check 7 times if I turned the oven off or that I compulsively wash my hands, but that I am a complete slave to my routine. Sometimes I think that my routine is all that is keeping me sane. I can be so engrossed in my routine that it interferes with my life. For example, around midterms and finals I will get super stressed about not having enough time to study or write papers, but instead of asking for help from Chuckles in doing my laundry or grocery shopping or cooking dinner I will insist on doing it all myself. Because how could I possibly get through a Friday morning without going to the grocery store? Or you can’t seriously think I would let somebody else touch my dirty clothes? The thought alone makes me start hyperventilating.


It’s not just my routine, but I always need my CD’s and shoes to be arranged in a certain order and if somebody even thinks about changing it I will Flip. The Fuck. Out. Anyway, I wasn’t planning on boring you with ALL of my neuroses today…The fact is that my routine has been thrown into a complete tailspin this past week and it is ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT. While writing about Enron the only thing going through my mind is “I don’t know what we’re doing for dinner tomorrow night” and next thing you know I’ve written that exact sentence down right in the middle of a paragraph about auditing legislation. It takes me approximately a minute to get out of my chair because I’m concentrating on the fact that I can’t, at the moment, do laundry at my house.


The reason for all the changes is GOOD, but I can’t seem to get past the change itself. We are having our kitchen and utility room floor retiled and getting a new stove and Chuckles is repainting those rooms. Good things right?! Especially the stove because I have been known to complain about our lack of a vent.


My complete reliance on routine could quite possibly be the most annoying thing about me. I definitely hate that I can be so inflexible about how things have to be done. I guess I hope that by writing this out I can see how utterly silly I’m being. Does anybody else rely on their daily routines to a fault and, if not, how do you live?!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

it's one of the many Type A curses. if things are working in said routine why WOULD you do anything different??
i hear ya woman. i'm right there with ya.
when we moved into the new house it was all sorts of drama (for me of course) because the way our bedroom is laid out. ever since M and i have started dating he's always slept on my left, and it just happens to be that it's ALWAYS the door side of the room (totally crazy observation, i know). but there was really one one way to lay the bedroom out here and it requires my right side to be the door side. i was so torn with what side of the bed to sleep on that first night since i knew it's how we'd be sleeping for the rest of our lives (in this house anyway), M didn't understand until i confessed my neurotic thought process.
i know i'm crazy, i'm okay with that.

Bayjb said...

Oh my gosh the routine is EXACTLY what I need because it's an element of control when I can't control anything else. I even put my clothing on in the same order. Sad.

Jay Ferris said...

You're not obsessive... just "quirky".

Haha yeah right.

OCD for sure.

Meg Kathleen said...

Notsojenny - I can see myself doing the exact same thing!

Bayjb - HA! It's good to know I'm not the only one who does that.

Jay - Yeah...I wonder if I should check myself into Fairfax.

April said...

You know how they say kids need routine? I actually think it's the parents that need routine! Yep, guilty as charged here, too.

Pretty Unfamous said...

I get paranoid and check probably five times before I go to bed that I have my alarm set.... That's my only real OCD.

Jamie said...

Whoa. You are back! I was wondering what happened to you :)

Anonymous said...

Umm..I'm Really weird about CDs and their arrangement, too. Ya know, in case that makes you feel a *little* better about one of those neuroses. ;)

New stove? that IS a good change. Those vent things are completely necessary (i.e. not setting off the smoke alarm is a Good thing.)!