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Creatures of Habit

rynner2

rynner2

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Aug 7, 2001
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I have a Sunday roast every week at a local pub.
I always turn the plate so that the beef is on the right hand side.

Sometimes at home I have smoked mackeral with coleslaw.
I always turn the plate so the mackeral is on the left hand side....


So what irrational habits do you folks have?
Do you always put your left sock on before the right one (or vice-versa)?

A lot of these habits seem to be to do with food and drink, like the tea drinkers conundrum of milk-in-first or not (we probably have a whole thread on that somewhere... :D )

Do you have any leaving-the-house routines?
What's the first thing you do when you get to work?

The questions go on and on... 8)
 
My mother does this and it annoys me immencely. She always has to make a cup of tea, place it on the table, eat her meal THEN drink her tea. If she is tired (and she has to be REALLY tired) she will sleep on the couch downstairs then, when it reaches 10 o'clock (if she wakes up before) she will move to her bed.

Her meals are at regimented times every day and she gets grumpy if it isn't on time. Psycological conditioning or what?
 
i used to have OCD so i consciously avoid forming habits, but i do have a few:

- when i have a meal consisting of separate "parts", eg sausages, potatoes, carrots, peas, i eat the components one after the other, so i will probably eat the peas, then the carrots, then the sausages, then the potatoes. i even go to the extent of separating out the veg if they get mixed up, so if someone gives me peas and sweetcorn mixed together, i will painstakingly pick out the peas and eat them first. this only happens with meals in a certain format - if it's, say, soup, i will eat it normally.

- i always put my socks on first and take them off last.

- i leave the spoon in my tea. this is because when i lived at home my dad was terrible at stirring the sugar in, so i started asking him to leave the spoon in so i could stir it myself. now i even leave the spoon in if it's a hot drink that i haven't put sugar in, like coffee.

i so dislike routine that sometimes if i catch myself doing these things i will do it differently on purpose. i just think about my mother, and how when i was little whenever she had to drive us anywhere she would go to the car, get in, and then get out again, check that she had locked the front door, and then get back in the car, and how annoying it was.
 
Nobody is allowed to touch my clothes except me. I can hardly even bear to have anyone else hang my coat up.

Once when I stayed in a hotel, the maid kindly tidied my togs away off the bed and I nearly had a fit. :lol:

I sometimes leave my clothes around in the bathroom. Peeps've been known to take a bath with my jeans dangling in the water rather than upset me by moving them. :shock:

I often find myself eating standing up. When I were a lass, kids had to do this and I seem to slip back into it.
 
When I have Sunday Lunch I always eat my Yorkshire puds first - but it's natural I suppose, I'm a Yorkshire lass at heart.

Carole
 
Based on the Subject Header of this thread, I was hoping it was a play on words and nuns would be involved with people's idiosyncracies in some way...:)

Actually, a very interesting idea for a post: how many forteans (or people who have experienced a weird event) are affected with OCD in some way (as opposed to that 'highly imaginative' or 'prone to fantasy' label that was slapped on people who had experienced a paranormal occurence, a few years back.)

So nobody does anything bizarre in the presence of nuns, huh?

Must be me.

Polterdog.
 
fluffle said:
- i always put my socks on first and take them off last.
Click to expand...
Imagines Fluffle wearing nothing bur socks... :madeyes:
 
For years (literally) my breakfast every day would be oatmeal with fruit, kefir, juice, coffee. I mean, it *had* to be that. :blush: I must shower in the morning (as opposed to after work or before bed). I always pat my trouser pockets to make sure I have my keys before I leave someplace. I always sit in the same pew at church (though this location can change over a period of years.)

All things that I feel/felt akilter or 'off' to some degree if they're not done. I like ritual. :)
 
I always like to park in the same area of the car park if I can, and when I go for my Saturday morning coffee, I like to sit at a particular table if I can. And many of the regulars have their favourite table too.

Carole
 
I like to have all the posts arranged just so, and now you last few have RUINED IT!!! :roll:
 
Lots of the things i do. I am highly ritualistic. Of late, for example, i swim daily and always take locker 121 as i did on day 1 over a month ago. It has only been in use twice since then and i didn't like it at all...
 
My work requires me to have a large number of individual programs running at once, and some of the programs have many windows or toolbars within them. I must open each program in a certain order, and have each of their boxes or toolbars open in a certain order or placed in a certain place or it throws me off my game somewhat.

Also I once had a car that I would lock five times before I took off somewhere or when I exited the car, but the five-lock thing was limited to that car.
 
Hey, Lop M8, you are taking good care of your mind-body-spirit link there! ;)

Mind - rationality - keys
Body - hygiene - shower - food - breakfast
Spirit - soul - church

:D
 
Polterdog said:
So nobody does anything bizarre in the presence of nuns, huh?

Must be me.
Click to expand...
Ooh, do tell us what you do!
 
i used to have OCD so i consciously avoid forming habits, but i do have a few:

- when i have a meal consisting of separate "parts", eg sausages, potatoes, carrots, peas, i eat the components one after the other, so i will probably eat the peas, then the carrots, then the sausages, then the potatoes.
Click to expand...

Cool! I also have OCD and I do the exact same thing, only to a lesser extent. I don't seperate mixed veggies. I thought I was the only one who ate like this!
I also always check to make sure my alarm clock is set for the right time multiple times before going to sleep. Used to be really annoying, but now I have an alarm that displays the time it is set for so I don't have to find the button and it is next to my bed so I can just look at it. I'm learning to cope. :roll:
Also used to go downstairs various times during night to make sure stove was off, but through some emotional work was able to stop doing that, thank goodness. I never used to get enough sleep.
 
I have to go to sleep mon-fri before 11pm. If I don't then I have to stay up all night.
 
If I ever make a mistake (trip while walking, forget something, mess up at anything) then I hapilly and promtly receive 30 bamboo lashings from Sylvester Stallone. I cant stand the thought of screwing up. The highest levels of the marine corps frown in shame at my presence.
 
Human_84 said:
If I ever make a mistake (trip while walking, forget something, mess up at anything) then I hapilly and promtly receive 30 bamboo lashings from Sylvester Stallone.
Click to expand...

Are you Brigitte Neilson?
 
I always read the FTMB on Firefox or Mozilla, and the FTMB *must* be in the leftmost tab. I'm also the only smoker I know who would always open the *right* side of the pack first (perhaps this makes no sense outside of Canada). The bf *must* eat with a certain fork. Because we are a blended household, our cutlery drawer is a jumble of silverware patterns but only *one* certain kind of fork will he eat with. Also, when I was working, I *had* to have a muffin, yogurt and small carton of milk to eat at my desk first thing. Bf and I always go out for brekkie on Saturday mornings before doing our grocery shopping, and must have our greasy breakfast at home on Sundays.
 
I keep several dogs and cats and always find myself thinking about how much I hate the ex when I'm poop-scooping, which is every day.

Keeps the memory evergreen. :lol:
 
I always double check that I have my keys before I leave the house - though that's due to the memory of locking myself out in the pouring rain and having to pay £50 for a locksmith to open my own front door; still, at least it confirmed that the place is largely burglar proof :). That said, I also double check that all doors are locked before I go out or to bed (cos it isn't burglar proof if you leave the back door unlocked whilst you're at work - found that one out to my cost too :().
 
escargot said:
I keep several dogs and cats and always find myself thinking about how much I hate the ex when I'm poop-scooping, which is every day.

Keeps the memory evergreen. :lol:
Click to expand...
Green? You might want to check their diets.
 
Some of the habits people have given here are just sensible precautions, or sensible, organised working methods - a place for everything, and everything in its right place.

When I was yacht skippering, I was very insistent that things should always be stowed in their right place, and 'just so'. But this wasn't OCD, but a practical precaution so that in the dark, or in a storm, I knew exactly where to find anything in a hurry.


But I can't see it makes much practical difference which side of the plate my roast beef is on... :?

(Only 2 h 15 m to Sunday lunch - not that I'm counting, or anything! 8) )
 
Why oh why do I have to log on to the computer at home when I know I will be on my own in the flat at night and the last thing I look at every time is the Fortean forum?
This inevitably requires me to leave at least one light on when I finally get to bed, and then I lay listening for the slightest noise and keeping my eyes shut.
Which reminds me that the most scariest thing I can think of in bed on my own is a loud, sharp couple of knocks at my letterbox. I would have to hide somewhere good!
 
Ties long string to Valda's front door, hides round corner, giggles.........*
 
My habits, like what appears to be most everyone else's, is with eating. When eating with other people, I always have to keep pace with one of them, and at the same time take innumerable pains to keep them from noticing. This, on more than one occasion, has gotten me a stomachache because of someone eating too fast. I'm also a layer person. I have to take everything in layers, going from top to bottom all the time. These habits together make for an extremely gifted sense of calculating what percent of something each layer is at almost any normal person's bite. I have no idea what started this, but I figure it could be a lot worse. I have toned down this a bit, because eating soup used to be horrible because I'd have to not only pick out each individual thing in it, but I'd also end up doing this from left to right based on how heavy the item was. Now I just pick them out at random, but always the same thing :p
 
My "habits" seem to cover many things I do. Like I prefer to use a certain colour cereal bowl or I have been known to completely empty & re load the dish washer if it does not look "right". I have to check all the downstairs doors & windows TWICE over before going to bed. (practical precautions there I guess)

But - the toilet paper HAS to pull off from the front - i cannot stand it if it hangs down the back nearest the wall - I have to change it round even in other peoples houses! Is that weird?
 
I agree with the toilet paper thing - it is really annoying when the paper hangs down at the back. I have so many annoying habits it's hard to know where to start (both my grand-dads suffered from OCD so it's no wonder really).
I have to eat breakfast cereals with a special teaspoon and I get really annoyed if my bf uses it to stir his tea - think he does it to wind me up. Also, I have to put the milk in the bowl before the cereal. Eating meals, well, I have to eat each item separately, starting with the one I like least. So if I have a steak with chips, veg, onion rings, etc. I eat all the veg first and work my way up to the steak. My brother is the opposite, he has to have a piece of each of the foods on his fork. So, it's obviously not conditioning.
As for checking things, I am totally obsessed with making sure that my mobile and purse haven't somehow teleported out of my handbag while I am between shops. I'll check, then check again a few minutes later to make sure they were actually there the first time I checked. Don't know why I bother, since I've only ever lost my purse once (after a drunken night out, and it was handed in to the police, so that was ok).
I wish I could go through life a little less obsessed with things, but I suppose it makes me feel safe and secure. :?
 
I ALWAYS sleep with one foot peeking out from under the covers. It's strange, but for some reason, I enjoy it.
 
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