How my OCD likes me to sort my belongings [photo, key]
Everybody's got a little bit of OCD. I've got a little bit of everybody's. Here's one example for you.
My brain likes certain things to be organized and then placed into piles and stacks. It's very difficult for me to use drawers, as out of sight is truly out of mine for me. As such, small clusters of things sprout up around our house. On occasion, I realize that these detritus-mounds are getting a bit obtrusive, so I decide to clean up a bit.
All of these sorted things were in dozens of different piles around our place. When I organize, I gather ALL of them, make one HUGE mound, and sort downwards. In this photo, I was about to start on the box in the lower right.
None are put away until ALL are sorted.
A few weeks ago I had pulled out a few piles of stuff and a box of papers to go through. Nadja casually mentioned that I should really stand up and take a photograph. I had absolutely no idea why she would ask me to do this.
b - “I'm just sorting things.”
N - “Mmm-hmm.”
b - “Why would I take a picture of-[looking down]-oh.”
N - “That's not how most people sort things, baby.”
b - “Not surprising.”
I had never taken a step back from my sorting methods and looked at them from the outside. When I look at this photograph, I know exactly what's going on; it took me no time at all to label it even though I took it over a month ago. When I look at it from the point of view of somebody just walking into the room? Holy shit, that dude must have The Crazies.
My obsessive compulsive disorder has, over the past few years, managed to overtake my mood disorder and my Tourette's. They're both still around, of course, but having Nadja around has calmed them both. My OCD has picked up the slack and become an inexcusable bastard.
I'm going to try to start taking notes of some of my methods and peculiarities. Perhaps I can get back into doing some Fuckbrain Comix specifically about these things.
Here’s a key to my labeling. Any jokes made about how the letters in the photo aren’t in the right order are clearly being made by somebody without OCD. :)
A - Bus schedule. Important to have several of these around. Keep one in Bag of Doom ™ at all times.
B - Books to be put away in the library
C - Pile of bits and tools left from putting together bookshelf
D - Two stacks of notebooks, either blank or with “important” pages removed
E - Stack of “notes” I've scribbled about things to draw or write or somesuch
F - Stack of comics and mini-comics [later separated]
G - Number stencils that I didn't return in time, to be taken to basement
H - Comic I was flipping through but don't remember what it was
I - Stack of items for “memory box”
J - Photos by others
K - Stack of international USPS customs forms
L - Marvel Battles toy from Nina and Boy
M - Comic to scan cover of [success]
N - Brochure for The Senator hotel in Atlantic City that got damaged before I could mail it to my brother
O - Unsorted under Jack Kirby Omnibus v.3, above are photos and comics to scan
P - Library books
Q - Cover to Call of Cthulhu RPG to tape back onto very old and worn book [now functions as half of my GM screen]
R - Recycling
S - Those stupid rewards cards that everybody gives you
T - Stuff of/for Nadja
U - CDs
V - Bag to put old cellphones into
W - Collected comics/pamphlets to be put away in library
X - Collection of Bob and Dave comics by Dave King, being read by Nadja
1 - Postcards
2 - Negatives of my old photos
3 - Two stacks of old photos that get blurrier and blurrier over the years as my Tourette's comes into effect
4 - Prints of photos I've taken
5 - Cards
6 - DVDs we're not keeping
7 - Old San Francisco Bridges postcard set
8 - Apollo Mission card set, ended up in white elephant gift. My friend
Chuck Dawg actively pursued my box of thousands of 1990's Marvel Comics
trading cards just to get these bad boys.
9 - Old black-and-white small photo cards
Love,
benjamin