Day 12: Something I'm OCD About

Me?? OCD about anything? Pshaw... I'd never be OCD about anything, that's so not like me!

Hahahahahahaha.... Ok, now that I've stopped laughing at myself, I can get on with this. I decided to narrow it down to just a few things that I'm OCD about.

First of all is my obsessive need to sort and put my playing cards away in a certain order. I think that this was born out of my frustration at never knowing if we had a full deck or not. Several of our decks of cards when I was little were missing a card or two. So as a teenager, I started sorting the cards into their suits and putting them in order. Now I can't put a deck of cards away unless they are sorted A,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,J,Q,K and in order of importance (aka my favorite) by suit. So they are arranged with Spades on top, then Diamonds, then Clubs, and last come the Hearts. I don't know why Spades are my favorite, but they are; likewise, I don't know why Hearts are my least favorite, because really, it would seem like Clubs would be last, but that's just how I do it. (In my defense, the playing card manufacturers seem to agree with my preferences because last time I opened a brand new deck, I checked it out, and they arrange them the exact same way that I do.

I can sort a deck of cards in under 2 minutes. If I'm not feeling pressed for time, I will also make sure that the cards are all "right side up." That means that on the Ace, the spade, club, or heart are right side up; diamonds really don't matter, because they are the same either way. I also make sure that the majority of card symbols are pointed right side up too, like on the 6 I make sure that 4 of the 6 symbols are right side up, etc.

Sticking with my game motif, I also have to put my dominoes away in a certain order. My family takes great pleasure in toying with me by dumping out the dominoes and throwing them back in the case all willy nilly. They don't even care if the dominoes are all face up or all face down... they just toss them in there hap-hazardly. Now, clearly, as any sane (read: Completely OCD Crazy) person like me would understand, there is a right way and a wrong way to put dominoes away. You start with the double six, and go in order from there. Six/Five, Six/Four, Six/Three, Six/Two, Six/One; Double Five, and so on until you get to the very last domino which is Double Blank.

It actually bothers me to know that they are put away wrong. I say that I can hear them screaming in their case, and even though I'm just joking about the screaming, it still makes me edgy and almost nervous to put them away wrong.

And finally, I am completely OCD about how money goes in a till. All the heads need to be facing the same way, and they all need to be right side (face side) up. I would think that this would be common sense and that to do it any other way would just be asinine, but sadly Monsieur Moliere spoke very true words when he said "Common sense is not common."

I find money all crumpled up in the tills, bills folded nearly in half, face up, face down, heads facing the wrong way. I have this sixth sense when bills are in the till wrong. I can walk up to a till, open the drawer and just know that something is wrong. So I go through and fix them. Then I remind everyone at work how to properly put the money in the till.