I got mine when I was 27, only because I realized I would need to transfer to another shift (night shift = not gonna use public transport) to avoid killing my supervisor.
Does Winnipeg qualify as a big city? We have a transit system, but it’s not nearly as good as it could be …
You crack me up.
Yeesh. I’ve never sunk that low, fortunately.
I’m writing porn RIGHT NOW!
I’ve been diagnosed Bipolar II. I think it’s closer to cyclothymia, though, since the only major depressive/manic episodes have been on meds. If I’m completely honest, though? I suspect it’s bipolar-type schizoaffective disorder. . .and have sound reasons for it.
My mind never stops. Ever. Like, seriously, ever. My coping mechanism is to either be A.) constantly communicating (writing/texting/reading) or B.) listening to music. Just sitting and watching something is usually hard and extremely unpleasant unless I start writing in my head. Fortunately, I can get by because. . .
. . .I have a crazy good memory. Like, can-rattle-off-the-PIN-number-on-my-Dad’s-phone-card-that-I-used-once-in-1997 (7352). This got me through more than one class-I-programmed-blackjack-during in high school.
I have slight hearing loss in the low ranges, and slightly hyperacute hearing in the high ranges. This is apparently congenital. I just found out about it two months ago. And I’m twenty-six. Suddenly, the fact that I’m constantly playing roller coaster with the TV volume makes sense (I’d turn it up for the dialogue, then go “fuck, that’s loud!” when the music started; I started watching with captions as soon as I figured out how to turn them on). The captions are always on on my TV. If I’m watching something with friends, usually, I have to sit close, or a good chunk of the dialogue is too quiet. I thought it was normal.
I used to live in front of the TV as a kid… all the time my parents were at work I was in the living room on the couch. Yup, not good. My folks called it “homeschooling”. :rolleyes:
You’re not alone; I have BP NOS with rapid cycling. I get depressed easily or I’ll be hyper and then “crash” into depression but I’m rarely up or down for longer than a few hours.
I used to live in front of the TV as a kid too. I was a walking, talking TV Guide. I used to memorize that thing. Of course, back then there were only 3 channels, then 5 when UHF came along. Still, I knew everything about everything that was on TV. Especially movies. I kept track of every movie I watched on TV, for years and years and years.
Now I never watch TV, except for once a year when I watch the Academy Awards. I don’t consider myself to be a snob about it. There’s a lot of great TV out there, and I’d probably get obsessed if I starting watching again. I’ve got thousands of videotaped of things I’ve taped off TV in the past, to prove that I can definitely get obsessive.
Not driving is not weird. My husband is middle-aged and he hasn’t driven since he was 16. I’ve only driven a car 3-4 times in the last 19 years, when visiting relatives in another state. Oh, and the driving test I took, because I had let my license expire and I thought it would be a good idea to have one again just in case we took a trip and wanted to rent a car, and so the relative whose car I drove wouldn’t be so nervous about me not having a valid license the next time we visited. I don’t miss driving too much.
All the more odd because I used to drive for a living. Ok, some times I miss driving, but I don’t want to put up with the headaches and expense of owning a car.
Random facts:
I used to be a truck driver. Big rig, cross-country, the whole shebang.
I drove professionally for a Driveaway company for years.
I’ve been to every state in the lower 48. I just haven’t been to Alaska and Hawaii yet.
I used to work as a data entry/bookkeeper for an X-rated movie theater. I worked nights (I worked days at a video store owned by the same people) and one of my jobs was running lights and sound for the strippers they’d have between movies. Man, those strippers had terrible taste in music. I used to make compilation tapes in hopes that the strippers would make my job more bearable by dancing to some decent music every now and then. Some did.
Confessions:
I love LSD, but I haven’t had any for a couple of decades. I pine for what I never had, which is the really REALLY good stuff that was around when I was too young to partake. Sigh. Magic mushrooms are a very close second. I think pot ought to be legal, or at least decriminalized, but except for one toke, one time, I haven’t smoked for something like 15 years. Nobody I know does drugs, so, out of sight, out of mind. Odd, because I used to hang around with with all kinds of (harmless) druggies.
I have a mild “oh, if I were young again” crush on my boss. He’s at least 20 years younger than me, black, absolutely adorable, and has the greatest laugh in the world. He thinks I’m a total old lady dork, which is ok, because I am. (my husband knows about this and is amused)
I used to run away from home all the time when I was a teen (13-15). Once I stole my mother’s car and made it all the way to Wyoming (from Kansas) before getting caught.
Secrets:
I have a lot of them, but they wouldn’t be secrets if I told them, now would they?
This is awesome!
Is it as lonely as the songs imply?
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I was 35 when I got my first driver’s license. I got my first car at 41.
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I used to find it impossible breaking up with a girl. I ended up marrying someone I didn’t love, someone I knew wasn’t right for me, because I didn’t know how to get out of it. I ended up miserable.
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While married to my ex, I was unfaithful. I thought it was just because I was a guy. Now I am happily married to the bestest woman in the world - and I can no more imagine cheating on her than I could imagine wanting to stick a moving chainsaw up my ass. Women that I know intellectually are probably really quite hot simply don’t interest me.
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Definitely boxer briefs.
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I love light blue lady underthings (when someone, preferably female, is wearing them, of course).
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Good beer is fantastic. I got into brewing my own basically because most commercial US beer tastes like donkey piss.
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I’m sick of TV shows promising 'twists and turns! A surprising ending that will leave you shocked!" Gee, thanks for making it impossible to just watch the show, since I’m now going to expect that any plot development is just setting up the view to be able to jerk 'em around later.
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The Wire and Firefly might be the best two TV shows ever made that a lot of people have never heard of. What Fox did to Firefly is criminal.
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Up until a few years ago, I really, really didn’t suffer fools lightly at work. I would routinely just ignore my boss(es) because they were complete idiots, even though it often caused problems (Going around your boss is almost always a bad idea). Which is why I’ve been in the same industry for 15 years, but have changed jobs, on average, ever 2-3 years.
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I’m an impatient person by nature. Poor customer service really pisses me off, and I have to stop myself from being overly harsh with staf. I leave ridiculously large tips if service is good, but can and do leave ultra-low tips (like $0.20) if service is substandard.
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I am beginning to suspect that I’m borderline obsessive-compulsive. My wife laughs when she sees me going through my mp3 files making sure the file names are all correct and consistent.
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When I was younger I always had to pile on flavors to my food. Salt, pepper, mayo, ketchup, sauce, etc. Lots of suger and milk in my coffee. Over the years I’ve pared back, and now realize that I have a much better sense of taste.
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I have way, way, way too many hobbies, and I sometimes struggle to find time to do the things I want to do. Way too many podcasts on my iPhone that I don’t have time to listen to. Books at home on the shelf because I haven’t had time to get to them yet. Movies and TV shows on the DVR that I haven’t had time to watch yet. I’ve had to specifically drop some hobbies and such, because trying to make time for everythign was getting frustrating.
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If I’m studying or learning something, I can’t jump in from the middle. I have to start from the beginning, always, and learn everything there is to know. This causes some problems when it comes to things like say, chess. Or the guitar.
Me too. And I’m not joking. The past two and a half years I estimate I’ve written about 250,000 words of porn and exposition between my characters for the purposes of furthering the porn. I’ve done a bit of smutting every single day.
My biggest fear is losing my mother. My second biggest fear is dying before my mother.
I’ve had my iPhone for a week and I’m addicted to the damn thing. I don’t know what I did before I had it. You know, a week ago.
I lost my best friend two months ago and I’m still not sure how I’m meant to deal.
I watch far too much TV. And I have a DVR full of shows and yet I spend time watching reruns of Roseanne and NCIS and Golden Girls on cable.
After nearly 20 years, I sometimes think I’m desperate enough that I’d have sex with the first person who offered. I’m probably not, but since it’s not likely to happen anyway, it’s moot.
You inspired me to create a thread in GQ. I would love to hear your input.
(Please understand, this is not mental illness bashing. I’ve struggled with PTSD and often-debilitating depression and anxiety for most of my life and I can’t think of a single family member of mine who wouldn’t qualify for some psychological disorder. I am the last person on the planet to judge someone for their mental problems. I really just want to understand schizoaffective disorder better.)
This is on my “bucket list” actually - well, the Canadian equivalent (see all 10 provinces), been to all of them except the four Atlantic ones, would love to go there sometime. Then possibly visit all three territories sometime in my life (never been).
Might want to try to get all 48 or 50 states as well - so far been to 9, seen 10 (went to Niagara Falls, ON - if you recall part of the Falls is in New York State, so I’ve seen New York, but never set foot in it.)
Some of you really have some strange secrets/confessions/random facts! I should learn to stop being surprised by things I learn about Dopers …
I’m vain. It’s weird, because I recognize I’m not what most people would consider attractive, but I have a small mirror I keep in my desk drawer and I check my face out a couple times a day. Not in a “wow, look at myself, I’m so hot” way, but in a “do I have any boogers perched at the edge of my nose, is my forehead flaky again, do I have spinach between my teeth…” way.
I generally don’t like people, and I can’t stand the work/social event, cocktail party type of thing where I have to chit chat with people I don’t know at all or very well, and discuss fascinating things like what I do, what they do, etc. The superficiality of it irritates me. I’d much rather sit down for two hours with any one or two of them and have a meaningful conversation than mingle about the room, not caring about anything any of them have to say, looking at my watch to see when I can get the hell out of there.
One of my kids is so easy, and the other is a good kid but I find myself correcting her constantly. Everything about using proper table manners to keeping her mind on her homework to reminding her to wash her face before going to bed to stop playing with that and please do what I asked! to everything in between. Sometimes when I lie in bed I want to cry because I realize that everything I’ve said to her from the moment I walked in the door to the moment she turned out her light, was scolding/correcting/harping on one thing or another. I desperately fear one day she’s going to realize that all I am is a pain-in-the-ass-dickhead, and start to hate me, much like I felt about my dad. And that would be a fate worse than death.
I feel completely emotionally ambivalent toward my parents. They never hurt me (physically) and busted their asses to provide an upper class lifestyle for us but for some reason they’re just people to me, like anyone else. When I hear people talking about how much they love their parents and fear for their bad health I think 
… what’s that like?
I used to drive drunk, so drunk that the next morning I occasionally wouldn’t remember getting home the night before. Completely blotto. Some strange twist of fate kept me from getting pulled over and/or smashing into something or someone. With the clarity of age and the years that have transpired since I last did that, I realize what a stupid, stupid person I was, and I feel terrible about it.
Like some other posters, I force myself to be charitable but only because I know it’s the right thing to do, not because I actually care all that much about the beneficiaries.
I more or less know what’s going on in the world but again, really couldn’t give a rat’s ass about it. It just seems that certain places at war have always been at war and the daily updates about the status of things in those places just becomes white noise at some point. I recognize it’s terrible for the people involved and their families, but it doesn’t move me in the slightest.
This post is way longer than I thought it would be.
wow some of these posts are truly mind-blowing! I see myself in little bits in a bunch of posts. I was actually going to type up something, but as I was re-reading / proofing it, it came across as so completely depressing that I am going to skip it and spare you all.
I am completely mind-boggled about the not driving thing though. Got my learners at 14, license at 16, car at 16. Iowa doesn’t have very good public transportation, but even if they did, I get motion sickness from being in the back of a car, on a bus, on a train, subway, tram, plane, etc. And both Dramamine and Bonine mess with my ability to think. I use those only when I have to travel for business, and otherwise just avoid being in those situations, generally by driving myself.
I have an 18-1 record this season in tennis – a combination of singles and doubles. I currently play at one level below the top an amateur can play in this league and will move up next year to the top level, assuming my body holds up!
I’ve always secretly had a poor self image and suffered from codependency, and it’s led me to make some crippling decisions in my life. I married someone I secretly despised because I was terrified of being alone. We spent nine years together. Eight of them were miserable.
I’ve been dating a fantastic woman for the past four months, and despite all evidence to the contrary, I’m obsessed with the idea that she isn’t really all that interested in me. I put on a good game face, but I think about it several times a day, and it makes me feel a little sick inside.
I’m also secretly insecure about my sexual prowess. My girlfriend recently asked how many people I’d slept with. I gave her my number, and asked hers. Turns out it’s between 50% and 100% higher than mine. This doesn’t bother me so much, since I spent nine years in a single monogamous relationship. However, I am absolutely terrified that she is lying to me and that the number is twice as high.
This doesn’t make much sense, because in many if not most ways, I’ve probably had the more fulfilling experiences, and am far more confident about expressing my needs.
Whew. That felt good.
Well, I guess I was a loser, then. 
The Moab incident sounds strange, though…where were you camping? I’ve camped in and around Moab a lot (and partook of green combustible matter), and I’ve never seen anything like that. You weren’t in the KOA that’s practically downtown were you?
I can’t sleep with both arms under the covers. One must be out at all times.
I was a bartender at a strip club in my youth.
I slept with an adult film actress and her daughter during that timeframe, though not at the same time.
I own 38 vintage automobiles.
I’ve been to 49 states, and more than 40 countries.
I often cry when I think about my parents, though they both passed away 10 years ago.
My swimming pool has a leak that I can’t find.
Something I’ve kept to myself for 23 years: I knew Challenger was going to have an accident. I had this thought 1 minute before launch, and went outside to watch (I was at Cape Canaveral AFS at the time).
My mother died 17 years ago after a months-long illness, and yet I’d give everything I own just to spend one more day with her (and I am not a young man). I cry just typing this.
Evel Knievel once called me on the phone.
The first time I ever even touched my wife was on our wedding night.