I wonder if I have some level of ADD. There are little things that bother me, especially visually. For example, if I fold a paper towel and the edges do not match, I will refold it. Not excessively, but the visual displacement nags at me. If done by someone else, it does not affect me at all.
I noticed in reading poetry here on WordPress, I tend not to enjoy reading double spaced poetry. That’s odd, don’t you think? Then I wonder if some people do not know you can hit the SHIFT key and the RETURN key to single space?
The change in editors impacts me in that way — especially if I have no control over spacing. Captions, for example, should be within a certain amount of space from the photo so as to be seen together. Maybe some of this comes from my design training or my early systems design and analysis training.
And magazines. I have always read them from back to front. Did that start with MAD magazine? I don’t think so. I remember my mother sometimes reading the end of a paperback novel before she read the novel. That would kill me. I never want to know the ending first!
That is also a danger of watching series shows on Netflix or Acorn or Hulu. The descriptions of each episode give away too much information. That recently happened when we watched the entire series of “DCI Banks” on Hulu. I accidentally saw the description of the last episode in the series and knew in advance what was going to happen! It ruined watching the last few shows.
When I make jewelry, if the symmetry is off, it will forever nag at me to the point I might give the piece away rather than try to sell it or else it will settle to the bottom of a box somewhere.
When our oldest grandson was a toddler, on shopping day his mom would stack packages of toilet paper and he would kick them over and laugh. Then she noticed if one roll was backwards and the pattern was off, he would try to ‘right’ it before kicking it over. So maybe it’s pattern recognition.
I guess we all have some of these things, don’t we? (I can’t be the only one.) I suppose we call them pet peeves or annoyances. Do you have them?
I keep on making up new fonts in my head, creating patterns that letters will follow, how they will be shaped and spaced and this happens mostly while I am sleeping, so when I wake up almost everything is forgotten and nothing is ever done.
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Wow, that is some kind of precise thinking, Jim. I could never design fonts.
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I only do it in my head, because I enjoy patterns.
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Earlier, I used to read the ending of a book to see if it is a tragedy 🙂 At night I like to keep my kitchen spic and span because that is how I like it to be when I enter in the morning 🙂
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That is so interesting. I do appreciate a clean kitchen in the morning!
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Me too, I can’t stand waking up to a dirty sink.
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DCI Banks? I can’t imagine that being popular in America. 🙂
My second wife had pronounced OCD. She had to have things in a certain order, all the time. It later got worse, with her worrying if she had locked the door, and going back to unlock it and relock it up to four times. The same with switches in the kitchen. She would turn them all on again, just to be able to switch them all off and know that she had done it. As a partner, it can be both distressing to see, and annoying to live with.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I do not know if it is popular, but we enjoyed it. The first few episodes were too gory for me – it was off-putting.
I am not at all OCD – you can tell by my lackadaisical housekeeping. I did have a gentlemen woo worked for me who was. It was tiring for both of us. His inability to change patterns ended up costing him his job, sadly.
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I have an oddity from reading your post today. I know where the Shift key is but I can’t find Return key.
Also, thanks for telling me about DCI Banks.
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Ha, ha! Is my age showing? Good thing I did not say ‘carriage return’!
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You might have a touch of OCD, I’m like that myself. Only when objects are out of place in OTHER’s space does it bother me. Like, my husband’s refusal to put his hand towel back on the sink neatly instead of wadded up next to it. I used to get in trouble at the lab where I worked because I would tidy up my partner’s space to make it like I thought it should be. Hahaha. I have spots in the fridge I want things to go too, like the eggs. Don’t move them or there will be hell to pay, lol. I’m weird.
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Perhaps, but it must certainly be in only certain areas of my life!
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You are NOT the only one.
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That is comforting, Dan.
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Hmm, I think Kim is right — it’s OCD that you’re probably thinking of, not ADD! I have more than a few symptoms of OCD myself….but nothing dire. I always leave the kitchen clean at night and make the bed in the morning!
Ha,ha — and have plenty of pet peeves….
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I suppose it is a way to focus my attention while I stay at home, Lisa. 🙄
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I had no idea about the Shift and Return keys for single spacing. I enjoyed this post.
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Thank you, Jessy. I hope you are doing well.
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I am, thanks. I hope you are doing well too, Maggie 🙂
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Many years ago I had a summer job as a chambermaid in a hotel. We were taught to iron the towels and fold them edge to edge, with the seams on the inside. I don’t iron towels now but I do make sure they are edge to edge on the towel rail. I have been known to straighten pictures in other people’s houses!
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I have never heard of ironing towels, but my grandmother ironed sheets and pillowcases. She had a huge pressing machine in the hallway. I do like my hand towels hung neatly and a crooked picture will send me over the edge just a bit. I cannot imagine you working as a chambermaid, Mary.
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I learned a lot in that job and quite enjoyed it for the summer. I also did kitchen work in the evening preparing the fruit cocktail and melon boats and whisking eggs for the cook to make omelettes. I can still hear her saying: “Don’t beat them to death girl. Gently.”
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I am driven mad by pictures being crooked. I have readjusted them in motels. At the front of the church sanctuary there are icons of St. Francis and St. Clare. I have spent way too much time trying to figure out if they are crooked or if the walls behind them are. As for DCI Banks, I have never watched the series, but I have read all of Peter Robinson’s novels about him and enjoyed them very much.
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Thanks for the comment about Robinson’s novels. Hubby was trying to decide if he should buy one. I think your comment helped convince him.
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Read them in order. You will come to know all the characters and begin to really wonder where their lives are taking them.
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