I always thought I had a touch of OCD because of some of the things that I find I absolutely cannot do or must do or mustn't. Then one day I absentmindedly blurted out one of my 'phobias' and as it turned out everybody in the room was either as warped as I am, or we're all normal (my bet would be on the warped thing). Or maybe we were just brought up not noticing our parents and grandparents superstitions and we picked them up without realizing? I know my paternal grandmother didn't allow of that kind of foolishness around her. I can actually remember her telling me once that she was glad she wasn't superstitious, and then she followed that by rapping on her rocking chair arm and saying "knock on wood."
These are the little 'rites' and 'lefts' that I notice the most about myself. What kinds of things do you do? Do you call it 'superstitions?' Or OCD? Or just.... well, warped?
If I get into bed on one side, it doesn't matter if somebody puts a cluster of poisonous snakes and booby traps on the floor on that side, if I'm ever going to get off that mattress, I'll just have to wade through and hope for the best. I have to get back out from the side I got in on. (Maybe a childhood thing when I didn't understand what someone meant by "getting up on the wrong side of the bed?")- If someone sneezes, no matter where we are or how quiet I'm supposed to be I cannot keep from saying Gezhundeit out loud (or my word play replacement, Guess Who Died).
- If a black cat crosses the road in front of my car, I cannot sit heavy enough on my hands to keep one of them from sneaking out and making the sign of a cross on my windshield.
- I look like a drunken duck when walking on cobblestones because even though my mom's been dead for four years and probably wouldn't complain at all if her back was broken, I still get cold chills if I step on a crack.
- If I see a car with only one headlight working at night, my hands so the 'snap pop' thing from childhood (snap your fingers then hit palm on fist)
- If I spill any salt, I toss a bit of the spilt portion over my left shoulder (I didn't even realize I did this until a friend asked me why I had).
- I won't let anyone kill a cricket in my house. A friend swatted one once and I was almost physically sick.
- If I use someone's pocket knife and we both forget whether it was open or not when it was handed to me, I have to just lay it down and walk away when I'm through with it. I don't think I could force myself to close it, or hand it back open without knowing.
- When someone dies, I can't help noticing to see who the other two will be (death always comes in threes, as any good Southern girl knows!)
- I love opals but even as a little kid I felt funny wearing them. My grandmother gave me a lovely opal pendant for my birthday one year and I don't think I ever wore it after I got home and quickly took it off. It was beautiful and I still own it, I just don't like wearing it.
- I can't stand to see a rocking chair rocking while empty. It makes cold chills run up my spine. I've snapped at many a young kid who leaned on an empty rocker and made it rock.
- I can't imagine seeing a shooting star and NOT making a wish.
- I've opened umbrellas indoors before but I always think about it beforehand and I admit, worry a tad.
