1) Even a five-year-old can pick up on the psychotic nature of others and they can be resourceful in helping someone cope with said psychotic disorder.
- I was driving my daughter to meet my husband for lunch when I got a block away from the house and realized I was unsure if I closed the garage door. My OCD kicked in and I was driven by some unseen force to turn the car around and double check my absentminded oversight. My daughter then suggested that in the future I use my cell phone camera to take a picture of the garage door every time I leave the house so that I know for a fact I closed it and then I will not inconvenience anyone with a less than scenic and repetitive return trip just to look at a garage door. Of course, she didn't say these exact words, but I knew.... In all fairness to me, this is not something I do a lot... maybe once every six months... Is that a lot? Maybe it is... Anyway, I have learned through the years that I am not alone with this mental condition as I now have a mini club of people with garage door closure obsessions. Now, a normal person might ask "Would it be that big of a deal if the garage door was up? I mean, what would really happen in the couple of hours you were away?" I am, however, not normal as one might have gathered through these blogs. Ever since I was pregnant with my daughter I have had this obsession with the garage door. I was really forgetful when I was pregnant, so I often found myself turning the car around to see if I had closed the garage door, which brings me to another revelation on my part...
2) I am annoyingly visual.
- In the garage door instance, my issues begin with the mere thought of a garage door being left open and then move into visions of my cute, but really clueless black labs getting out through the inside door leading to the garage that didn't close quite right that has been blown open by the rampant winds in my state and then the dogs getting out of the door at just the right moment where the wind shoves the door open and then running through the streets of my neighborhood like the many other dogs I have stumbled upon through the years
. You know, the kind of dogs that actually walk down the middle of the road and are completely oblivious that your ginormous car is right behind them on their heels... So the minute I think of that I just have to go back and check. It's not just the dogs though. My sister and I were talking about our overactive imaginations the other day. Little things set me off: If someone just mentions lasik eye surgery I want to gag or the whole Sarah Palin turkey incident was enough to make me sick. I mean, I know they blurred out the whole slaughter thing, but that doesn't help me think of the poor little turkey who is probably thinking "Hey lady, why don't you stop rambling and get over here and help me! What the heck are you rambling on about anyway???"
3) Something minor I have learned this year: Just because someone has the title "Master" at a hair salon doesn't mean you will get a good haircut. Additionally, just because you pay a lot of money for a haircut doesn't mean it will be good, nor does it mean they will treat you well.
4) The "bee people" video reference from the old Blind Melon song actually comes up more than one would think in normal conversation. Plus, sadly, I still have not discovered mine despite my new grad school affiliation (a reference only my sister and few others may actually comprehend, but it's still a lesson nonetheless!).
5) I am a sympathetic crier and even games that depict the nature of clicks and segregation in schools make me feel bad, even when I am not the one that had to wear the single pick dot on my forehead.
- This one I will explain: There was a demonstration in one of my classes where a girl had us stand in a circle and close our eyes. She preceded to give us each a colored dot on our foreheads and then told us to open our eyes and "Find where we belong." Everyone paired with their groups despite not knowing which color we actually had on our forehead, leaving the single pink dot lady out on her own. : ( Sad day... Anyway, one girl from another group embraced her and brought her in, but I couldn't help thinking how totally hurt I would feel if that had been me! The whole point of the exercise was to show how ostracizing people can feel and to show that we naturally put people in groups even though no one told us to separate by color. She simply said "Find where you belong." My friend "J" had a similar demonstration in one of her classes only they had "titles" or something and one girl's said "Ignore me" or something similar. I guess the girl got really upset, which would totally be me if I were there! This all reminded me of his kid in junior high that was mentally handicapped who would believe anything anyone said. These one boys in gym one time told him it was Christmas and he was so excited! He went around telling everyone "Merry Christmas!" I just felt so bad for him and always had a tendency to sympathize with the outcasts, maybe because I was one myself I guess. I mean, my parents weren't exactly June and Ward Cleaver. Anyway... I have learned this year that being oversensitive is really inhibiting.
6) Cats are not as easy as everyone says they are.
What's the deal with that anyway? I mean, they need food, water, brushing, and an amazing amount of attention, just like dogs do. So why does everyone say cats are easy, but you never hear people say dogs are easy. Maybe because they are self-sufficient cleaners of themselves? What's the deal with that though? So they clean themselves with their own spit and that makes them easier? Uhhhh, no. Yucky. Anyway... We got a kitten for my daughter and it attacks me every night in my sleep because she wants to "play" but I really just want to, uh, sleep. My daughter is in 7th heaven though, so I will not rock the boat by putting a damper on her "easy pet" dreams.
...and finally:
7) New Year's Eve is only fun when you are with people who actually want to be out on the town, otherwise it is mostly a hostage situation where you are forcing your victims to watch dancers, listen to bag pipes, watch fireworks, yell, and take late night carriage rides through a sparkling city, while you ring in the new year at home by 11:00 and toasting a sleeping kid and a husband who keeps asking "Can we go to bed yet?"
There's more, but I will leave it at this for now...
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