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I’m in Kayeby’s boat, in that, I always have to look presentable no matter where I’m going. Whether it just be to the post office to drop off a letter (where I don’t even have to exit the car), the corner liquor store for a Lotto ticket, or even to pick up some food at a drive-thru window (yes, I even have to look good for the minimum wage worker who doesn’t speak English).
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When going to work, I must be exactly on time. None of this 10 or 15 minutes early stuff, but right on the dot. I absolutely hate being early. If I’m early, I’ll just sit in the car and wait in the parking lot until I know I’ll walk into the door right on the dot. But this only applies to work (since I loathe it); I don’t mind being early for appointments, school, interviews, etc., though.
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Whenever I use someone else’s computer, and they’re using Windows, I always have to alter the start menu setting to ‘show small icons in start menu’. I just hate the look of the giant start menu with the vertical logo of Windows whatever. If it’s already set to show small icons, I begin to wonder, because it seems I’m the only person in the world who prefers this look.
There is another thread about this sort of behaviour, here
But for those too lazy to have a look, here’s my anal-ness again…
… I can’t walk down an aisle in the supermarket the wrong way (when first entering a new supermarket, I have to determine which way is the correct way, before shopping can proceed) Even if I don’t need something in a particular aisle, I have to walk up it, because then the next aisle will be the walked in the wrong direction
… when playing cards for 5 cent coins with my neighbours, if there are more than three coins I have to arrange them in a geometric pattern, or stack them.
… when working as a supermarket cashier, all the notes had to be facing the same way. And all you people who handed me several $20’s or $50’s all facing different directions should watch out as I know where you all live
… spoons have to face down (i.e convex surface facing the ceiling) when draining and storing
… all clothes must be hung on the clothesline with the same coloured pegs. If somebody helps me hang clothes on the line, and they happen to hang a shirt with a blue peg and a white peg… I actually go and change it, so both pegs are the same colour. I wonder what would happen if I didn’t ???
Oh, I could go on about how I can’t step on cracks in the sidewalk, and how I have to greet my stuffed toys every morning, before I leave my house, but then you’ll all think I’m not just anally retentive, but in dire need of professional help 
ok, after I got over the giggle attack I realized I do many of these things.
I wash my hands constantly. Working in the clinic at the school has just aggravated the habit.
My books are sorted by subject (non-fiction, sci-fi/fantasy, fiction, etc), then in alphabetical order by author, then by subject.
My desk has got to be absolutely clean when I leave and ready for work the next day.
If you touch something on my desk put it back where you go it from. If you can’t, DON’T touch it!
There are others, but those are the major ones I can think of right now 
I teach three days a week, four different classes, on two college campuses. Two of these classes meet only on Fridays.
I actually keep a log of what I’ve worn on M, W, and F, to both campuses because I don’t want to “repeat” an outfit “too soon.”
Is this pathetic or what?
I also brush my teeth many times a day and take another toothbrush, holder and paste to work. I just can’t stand it if I can’t brush.
Yeah, I do this too. All the bills must face the same direction, particularly before you hand them to a cashier. I have to make sure they’re in the proper order of value, too. Ones in front.
Did y’all work retail? I did for eleven years and it seems that’s a side effect of working a register.
In spite of what Vix and Pucette think about me, I’m not that anal retentive about most things. I do, however, have a few small areas of concentration.
1a. Like Lsura, I must have a schedule. It doesn’t matter if I revise it constantly in my head, I still have to have it.
1b. Everything has to have a time frame. If we’re going on vacation this summer, I have to know that we’re going to make a definite decision by April 1. It makes me crazy when we decide, and then after the designated date, someone pipes up with “Hey, how about Martha’s Vineyard instead of Salem?” Arrrgghhh! You were NOTIFIED that the period for submitting suggestions was from any date in prehistory up to and including April 1 of this year!!! Hey, I’m a flexible gal, if the entire town of Salem closed down, I would be the first to reopen the nomination period. But after April 1, the only things on the table are how to get to Salem, where to stay in Salem, where to eat in Salem, and what to see in Salem. Unless the island of Martha’s Vineyard has mysteriously leapt out of the ocean and deposited itself in the middle of Salem, we’re not going there. It’s not in any of the 10 guide books, 20 history books, and 50 million websites I have assembled about Salem since April 1.
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Staples. When I staple things, the staple must be perfectly set at a 45 degree angle, even from both top and left edges of the document. Exception: if the document will ulitmately be included in a binder, it must be exactly vertical, for ease in page turning. Although, I almost always avoid stapling subsets in binders for the page turning reason.
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My actual desk is cluttered, but my computer desktop is immaculate. Icons are in order and grouped by theme. Files are carefully named, with two or three words in all caps that indicate subject, two or three in lower case that indicate audience, and then six digits to indicate date. So every file on my computer looks like:
TENURE POLICY ADDITION all faculty 041299
MEMORIAL LECTURE biology department 111800
STOP THROWING OUT MY STAR WARS STUFF mom 072101
I had a boss once who would call everything “grant proposal” and then she would scream because she couldn’t find stuff and then I would scream because we do about a bajillion a semester.
Ditto on the properly stored CD’s. Expecting Rock the Casbah only to find Pachabel’s Canon ranks right up there with squishing a testicle.
My analosity about properly alligned sprinklers can be pretty odiferous too. As a geologist, I hate to see a natural resource wasted. My sprinklers are set to the optimal time and duration and don’t water the street. When I see my neighbor’s going off at 2:00 in the afternoon after a thunderstorm during an overall drought and taxing the freakin’ storm drain, well, I feel like Billy Jack in an ice cream shop.
I have to take socks out of the washing machine in pairs. Then they have to be pegged out in pairs.
I can’t wash up if I have no washing up gloves. The thought of that icky water with little bits of food floating round in it and touching my hands turns my stomach.
Another “me too” for turning lights off when you leave a room, my daughter drives me mad when she leaves them on. She will learn.
Setting/Checking the alarm clock. I will set the alarm - then two and a half seconds later - check it. This process will go on for a good five minutes. Click on the alarm time button - whew 7:00…now I can lay down. Think and take two breaths - I better check the alarm clock again. Click on the alarm button - whew again 7:00. Good thing a gremlin didn’t change the time on me or anything like that. Now I have to go to the bathroom. AS SOON AS I enter the room - better check the alarm clock again. Click on the alarm button - WHEW! 7:00.
This process can go on for a good 15 minutes. What am I expecting to happen to the time the alarm is set for? Have I ever had an alarm clock re-set the time it was supposed to go off at all by itself? UM, NO! But I just can’t stop myself.
When getting out of my truck, I have to look at my hand and see my keys to make sure that I don’t lock them inside. And before slamming the door I’ll grip them tight enough to hurt slightly, which is the only way I’ll allow myself to take my eyes off of them until the door is shut.
Also add me to the list of hand washers, but only at work.
Another CD person checking in. I am a total slob (hey, I live alone and it doesn’t bother me), but the Andrew Lloyd Webber CD collection must be kept in order. First by show (Likes of Us, Joseph, Superstar, Jeeves, Evita, Song&Dance, Cats, Starlight Express, Requiem, Cricket, Phantom, Aspects, Sunset, Whistle, Beautiful Game), then by language (English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Finish, Japanese, Hungarian, Korean, Hebrew, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, Czech, Polish, Russian,
and Urdi. Soon to be added: Portuguese.) Then by year.
My show programmes, the same way.
mr. zoot thinks i’m actually a little scary with some of this stuff.
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even numbers. everything has to be even numbers, prime numbers or perfect squares. for instance, if i’m eating potato chips, i count each handful. if i get a handful that’s not an even number of chips, or a prime number or a perfect square, i have to keep eating chips. when i get a handful that meets the above criteria, i can stop eating chips. same with jelly bellies, cheez-its, anything you eat in bunches.
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counting. i count everything. i can tell you exactly how many driveways are on the right side of my street, how many street lights there are, how many white cars are normally parked on my street, how many billboards there are on the highway on my way to work. of course, we just moved to a new state, so there are tons of new things to count.
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alignment. everything must be properly aligned. the little sugar packets must all face the same way before i tear them open to sweeten my coffee. the little creamer containers must all be opened from the same direction, and stacked one inside the other facing the same way. money must all be facing the same direction in my wallet. i have two change purses, one for silver and one for pennies. don’t EVER mix them together.
ditto the being late thing. mr. zoot is always late. this makes me insane, and puts me into a tense and keyed-up state for the duration of the event.
ditto the key thing. and don’t EVER take my key chain apart. mr. zoot has a habit of losing his keys. when he can’t find his keys, and needs to go somewhere, he will take just the car key off my keychain. then he will lose it. this makes me furious. he cannot understand this, no matter how many times i explain it to him.
oh, and cuticles. i trim my cuticles constantly, and cannot stand to see them looking ragged. i have emery boards and cuticle trimmers everywhere- bathroom, kitchen, car, desk at work, purse.
hmmm… maybe i need to see someone. but, these quirks do not interfere with my life, nor do they keep me from doing anythinf i enjoy, so i guess i’m ok. 
Whenever I go to bed, I always have to make sure that the blankets are straight. The bed doesn’t have to be made, but they can’t be hanging off one side of the bed, or be sideways, or anything like that. I literally panic and feel trapped if their weight is heavier on one side than on the other. My SO always laugh at me when I start tugging on the blankets saying “The blankets have to be right…!”
I also can’t sleep in the absence of the proper teddy bears on the bed. We have 7 stuffed animals on the bed, and they each have a proper order in the corner, and if there’s one missing, I can’t sleep. We also take all 7 of them with us when we go back home to visit. Seriously, we get funny looks from friends and family, seeing as we’re both 20 year olds insisting on travelling with teddy bears.
I also HATE it when there’s time left on the microwave. First, why would ANYONE open the door when there’s only 2 seconds left to go? And if you do, please please please hit clear!! We don’t have the clock set on the microwave, so it’s not about seeing the time. It just drives me nuts to glance at it, and see a constant “2”.
I’m sure there’s more, but I can’t think of any right now.
I tend to be pretty easy going, but when it comes to my car I am down right anal.
The car must be cleaned once a week, inside and out, even inside the door frames and innder fenders. Fluid levels must be checked, as are tire pressures. Oil must be changed every 3,000 miles. Funny noises drive me insane while driving.
And it isn’t even as if I am obsessed with my car or anything. If someone breaks something/scratches it/etc… It really doesn’t bug me, it just has to be clean and well maintained. Same thing with any other machinery.
All clocks also have to be showing the same time, and I have to know the time.
Tools, pens/pencils, rulers, etc… Have to be put back when done being used. I am very easily driven insane by something as simple as a missing tool under the right circumstances.
That’s about it, I can’t think of any more.
Perfect grammar and conventions - I winced the other day when I made the mistake of forgetting the irregular comparative form of ‘good’. I said ‘gooder’. Aghhhh! I looked in a dictionary for the proper spellings of ‘Hanukkah’/‘Chanukkah’ the other day. I always preview my posts at least twice, checking for errors and adding new stuff. I e-nunc-i-ate clear-ly my words, e-ven in in-form-al con-vers-a-tion, so I al-ways sound like a mor-on. I use ‘whom’.
Organization - everything must show some sign of being controlled by an intelligent being, and not the Chaos Theory. Notes, homework, computer icons and everything else under my direct control must be orderly. I just got through organising my MP3 playlist, respelling the misspellings of the artists’ names.
Hygeine - must always be at it’s ideal state: dry, carefully parted down the middle and clean. I must always wash my hands after handling dirty things, and wipe my face down about twice a day to remove the grease. I shave once I begin to feel stubble, not when it becomes visible. I brush after every meal, lest I feel my tongue rub itself to a nub over the film that forms thereafter.
Not saying anything unless I have something to say - only applies to real life, folks! I’m allowed to be frivulous here!
Learning song lyrics perfectly - this counts for foreign-langauge songs, too!
I am indeed anal.
Somebody called me Anal Retentive the other day, but I’ve made a alphabetised list of reasons that they are wrong.
Recycling. I am anal retentive about recycling. I do NOT understand why the people I work with do not understand that by recycling, we are saving our planet, albeit in tiny little increments. They throw out recyclable stuff, I retrieve it and put it in our recycling bins. They say “EWWWW”, I wash my hands and ignore them.
They think I am wierd. I think they are clueless.
We are probably both correct.
Scotti
OK, I realize this is common, bot oddly enough I grew up the opposite way.
For reasons I won’t get into, it’s more natural to me to step on the cracks alone. Stepping in the space between them is like stepping off the rung of a ladder. So, when walking, I’ll often walk down the middle crack or else measure my paces to match the width of the pavement squares, thus assuring that EVERY STEP is on a crack. Otherwise I might fall through.
As you can imagine, I’ve driven some people nuts with this, since they subscribe to the other side of the theory.
Second weird thing: You guys with hand washing are no big deal. I have to wash my face all the time. Every time I wash my hands, I also wash my face with the wet paper towel. I’ve been on dates vefore when my face would start to itch, and I’d realize I hadn’t washed it in over an hour. It would freak me out so much I’d just have to excuse myself just to wash up.
Not really all that much … in fact, most of you better stay away from my office or you’ll just vibrate yourselves into oblivion … can’t remember when I last saw the surface of my desk. Yes, I know I need to clear it off. But I keep getting assignments with deadlines of yesterday, if not sooner, and when I do get a little ahead in my work, I’m usually too tired to begin an archeology project (digging thru the layers of stuff). So sue me. (Altho’ my boss’s boss did “suggest” I work on it.)
Back to AR - If I’m eating cookies, and there are two types (say, chocolate and vanilla elf-cookies) I have to have an equal number of each.
I always PREVIEW at least once … doesn’t everybody? I also pre-preview, reading over the post in the editing window before hitting preview. (Also, except when the board is really slow, then I only preview here, not with the P button)
Silverware (ok, its not really silver), we too have more types than slots in the organizer thingee, so when they share a bin, one (say salad forks) must have their heads one way, and the other (regular forks) must be 180[sup]o[/sup] the other way.