What are some of your idiosyncracies?

Ok, I wanna know: What do you do that is sooo you, or something that noone else does... Do you do things that any sane person would call OCD or worse? It may be something someone close has pointed out to you, or something you have never told anyone else!

I will use myself as an example.

After a shower, I always dry off in the exact same way, same order without fail.
For as long as I can remember, I always did this thing with lines... It's hard to explain, but if I was walking on a sidewalk I would imagine lines connecting to all of the corners, and then, to top it off, I would try not to step on them. This could get quite complex and funny looking. It made me walk all funny-like. I did this for years. I still imagine these lines, but I don't try to dodge them anymore
I say "The thing is.." alot.

... I will stop there, so as not to sound anymore crazy

*i say "and stuff" all the time.

*if i don't sleep enough, i hallucinate spiders everywhere. they look like daddy longlegs. they don't scare me, but i'm just like, "oh look. spiders everywhere."

*i read the last line of every book before i begin it.

*if i'm home alone, i sit around and eat stuff with my mouth open, like fully open. usually cereal. on the couch. and make "mwah ,mwah" noises whie chewing. but ONLY alone. no one has witnessed it!!

--I think I'm incapable of throwing away (or doing anything useful with) plastic grocery bags, empty coffee cans or empty pickle jars.
--whenever I finish a book, I kiss the cover. if I'm in a group of people I don't know very well (or whatever) I'll stop before the last paragraph, then read it when I'm alone.
--I feel vaguely guilty if I shut off a radio in the middle of a song (even if it's a song I dislike) or someone is in the middle of saying something (even if I'm not listening)
--I say "I don't know" a lot. (like: "I think I'll go look at carpet samples today, I don't know...")--it's a verbal tic that really annoys me when I catch myself doing it, I don't know...
--unless I know somebody really, really well, I always need some sort of excuse for visiting or calling somebody--returning something borrowed, borrowing something or lending something, usually.
--I leave a light on when I'm working graveyard shift, not for security reasons (I haven't locked my door in maybe a year & a half, which is probably pretty stupid, but whatever) but so my cats won't be in the dark (knowing full well that they can probably see just as well with the light off)


[Edited on Dec 03, 2002 by ratsonjulia]

i can't remember a phone number, unless i make a patern out of it.
for example, 250 7950, and old pager # makes an upside down cross on the key pad of a phone.
pager 2 was 225 7287, could remember the last four didgits spelled "rats", but still have to look at a phone to remember what the numbers are.
and my cell was 747 1600, i remebered that a 747 was an airplane, and a plane that crashed close to pgh was supposed to hit the whitehouse, wich is 1600 pennsylvainia ave.

I torture children, club baby seals, and fuck handfulls of mud.

...either that, or I say horrible things in jest.

god bless you

You can fuck a handfull of mud? Hmm...
I always used to forget if I hit the start button when I put my clothes in the dryer. I'd be laying in bed but I'd have to go down to the basement to see. Then, when I came back upstairs, sometimes I'd still feel anxious even though I just checked. Also I never liked to step on the lines of white tiles at the local mall, which meant I took a giant step every hundred feet or so.

I walk out my front door.
Lock the door.
Unlock the door.
Run into the kitchen too check the stove is off.
Check the dryer is off.
Leave...

every fucking day.

Hello, OCD!!!

I like going to bed at 9 and waking up at 6:30, does that count?

How odd most of you are........everytime I wake up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night I have to turn on the bedroom light when I come back in and check the closet and around my bed to make sure no one is in there ready to hack me to bits.....or scare me..but I think most people do that don't they?

I swear, a great deal. The swearing isn't even while being angry or miffed, it is just a normal part of my speech.

I use antiquated colloquialisms. I have been caught saying "The Bee's Knees", "Geez Louise", and others.

When I start my car I will turn it off if it doesn't sound right.

I, like a person posting before me, have trouble calling or visiting people I do not know that well.

I like to buy a small block of cheese to eat at movies sometimes.

& walk away 6 steps and then turn around and make sure that i REALLY did lock the door....yeah, that's me.

I absolutely have to listen to music whenever I'm driving.

Part of my "starting up the car" routine (that I always do in the same order) involves hitting play on my CD player.

I say "ya know" a lot

I am paranoid about leaving appliances on and locking my keys in my car

I know I have others but I am blanking right now

*I have to know that windows are closed or propped open with sticks so that people cant climb in them.
*I don't like getting up in the middle of the night and leaving my room for any reason becuase I feel like someone could sneak in there during the time I'm gone and be waiting when I come back.
*I can not sleep without this specific woolen hat on.
*I tuck my jammie pants into my socks when I get into bed becuase I don't like it when they bunch up around my knees.
*The textures of food can cause me to avoid them based on that alone. Humus. Tomatos. Regular Lettuce.
After listing these together I don't feel so normal anymore...
Edited for my bad typing.

[Edited on Dec 03, 2002 by Orchid]

I have to sleep with a fan on, it dosen't have to be pointed at me I just have to hear it

I can't ride a skateboard unless I put the grip tape on it myself

the shoes I skate in have to have two different color laces, one black one white or the the socks have to be that way and if I wear two different color socks they have to be opposite the different color laces

it goes on from there

i draw on myself when i'm socially uncomfortable lots of circles and lines
also i have to have a window rolled down when i'm in a car, unless its pouring...
also i tend to fill up my speach with useless modifiers like "and so forth, whereas, and the like" so i sund like a flustered english professor
its bad

-me

-I'm not OCD in any way, which in this context apparently makes me weird...
-I am completely obsessed with nightmares. For all the dark and creepy people I've met, I've never met anybody with a nightmare fixation at all like mine. Amusingly, I'm not a very creepy person.
-I think reality is like clay. I think someday I'll be able to directly mold reality according to my will. I'll say "you! be a fish!" and you will be.
-I ramble complete goofy nonsense all the time. Then, later on, I go back and think about some goofy thing I said and I realize it meant something. Oops.

I do that knee shaking thing a lot. You know..where you just sit there and it goes up and down at 261672 shakes a second. Nervousness maybe I dunno.

i just realize i do this too, if not, i get sickening headaches.