Thursday, December 07, 2006

Are You Sure You Checked?

Seguing from Greg's blog, I just have to tell a little story about my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

When I was Italy, my room-mate and I got reservations to visit the Accadamia and Uffizi in Florence. Two days before our departure the hotel clerk made the reservation and wrote the numbers on a piece of paper that my room-mate took and put in her purse. On the morning of our trip to Florence, I, the OCDer, noticed that my roomie did not double-check, triple-check or quadruple-check that she still had the paper in her purse. It was driving me nuts. Finally I asked her "Are you sure you have our reservations?" She calmly replied that she did, she had put the paper in her purse. I thought: TWO DAYS AGO! Didn't she realize that the paper could have grown legs and walked away from her purse. It might have spontaneously disintegrated. Italian paper elves could have stolen it. How could she possibly know it was still there, just because she put it there! I had no choice but to believe her.

And, of course, when we arrived at Accadamia she took the paper out of her purse and handed it to the ticket agent.

Thus I got a glimpse of what life is like for non-OCDers. I was amazed at how sure, how very certain, she was, without double-checking, that the paper was still in her purse. How calm she was.

I will never be like that.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't even ask me how many times I check if the front door is locked...

cityofmushrooms said...

so I guess I am one too

Nanuk of the North, older but no wiser said...

I'm convinced more people have some little OCD thing going on than don't. It varies widely, I'd imagine.

Anonymous said...

As you well know, I have to touch the stove elements to make sure they are off...I guess the day I do forget to turn one off, I will find out the hard way.

Now when I leave for the weekend, I have a mental checklist that I go through before actually leaving.

Then about an hour later, I think, what if the pipes start leaking or the freezer door accidentally opens?

JAW fan.

Nanuk of the North, older but no wiser said...

'Cause you know those freezer doors and how often they spontaneously spring open when nobody is home. Happens all the time.

Anonymous said...

I'm the same way Nan. When we go to a football game, which we are tomorrow, I'll look at my ticket at least five times in the car to make sure it's still there. I won't let anyone else hold mine, and then I won't take it out of my pocket again till I'm at the gate. I guess I'm afraid that a mighty wind or ticket-snatcher will carry it away. I do the lock thing, the burner thing (because I really have left the gas stove on for about an hour without realizing it, luckily the house didn't burn down).

Nanuk of the North, older but no wiser said...

Well that settles it. Everyone's normal, no matter how neurotic they are!