Day 12--Something you are OCD about

I am just going to preface this by saying, I hate the phrase being "OCD about something," because it is an actual disorder and people with obsessive-compulsive disorder have an actual disease. Life is difficult enough without making light of something that can be debilitating and sad. And I'm not just saying that because after reading this post you may or may not arm chair diagnose me as one.

Let's put it this way, here is my take on all words that are dodgy in the insulting/abuse category. If a person would not willingly use it on themselves, then it is insulting. For example, there are probably NO religious groups in the country who would say, "Yeah, I belong to this cult." NO. They say, "I belong to this religious sect." Because cult is a term of abuse. Period. Which is why I decided to just keep this as is, because the people I know with OCD say, "Yeah, I am OCD about this thing, and so are you sometimes." And so I figure it is not like the word cult or the R-word, which grates on me, angers and upsets me, then makes me stabby. STILL, I won't be semantic police, and just play along nicely.


I really am a chaotic organized person. I used to be accused of having the messiest desk in the office at my last job, but anytime someone needed something I knew exactly where it was. Because everything is alphabetized, even my piles. Or organized by dates, or color, or size, so it may look like random chaos and mess, but it really is organized.

So, I also am pretty methodical about keeping times and dates and so I have cross-referenced calendars all over my house. I have a family day planner, a dry erase board that is updated monthly, a calendar for still life 365's postings, including who is going, what they are posting and in what genre, then I have a perpetual calendar for all the babylost people I come in contact with and their child's death and birthdates (though sadly, not their living children) along with their blog name and the corresponding address, and then I have a perpetual calendar for family/friends birthdays and anniversaries. I hate being late. I hate when I forget a birthday. So, there is that. Pretty much I am everything un-fun in a person. If you follow astrology, I am a Capricorn with mostly all earth signs in every house or planet or whatever you call it. I was also born in the year of the OX, which isn't really one of those light-hearted, playful animals. Funnily, I think this being on-time, keeping track of things thing is just like walking around in the world with a gigantic red arrow over your head at all times with the word NERD on it, and I frequently lie, uh, I mean, play stupid when I arrive at events ten minutes early. "OH, I thought I was late. How nice to sit and rest." Because I generally cannot help myself, I must get somewhere early. I blame my mother for this, because she was eternally on Panamanian Standard Time which is apparently fifteen minutes later than the rest of the world.

Anyway, so there is that. I know I am late for the Day of the Dead swap, y'all. The prints are drying. I swear.