Bit of Truth: I have some compulsive tendencies.

1. Cans in the pantry are right-side-up and have all their labels facing out. So does every Pepsi and bottle of Sobe at work. So might the drinks at Maverick if I’m really bored.

2. Skittles etc. If there are ten purple, eight yellow, nine red and four greens I will eat six of the purple, four of the yellows and five of the reds so that there will be a perfect four of each. Yet if there are twelve orange and eleven greens and three of the other colors I will eat all of the lesser colors and one of the orange so that I leave eleven of both orange and green.

3. You can often find me walking around the house with a plastic blue bowl full of Cheerios. However, there isn’t any milk in it. I eat one out at a time. And though it may appear like I am just eating ANY one at a time, I am not. I eat the “abnormals”, the different ones. Ex. The huge ones, the tiny ones, the skinny ones, the darker ones. And I eventually end up with a handful of PERFECT Cheerios in the bottom of my dusty bowl.

4. Peanut M&M’s. I am even strange enough to combine my tendencies. I do the skittle thing with M&M’s, and I eat the abnormals too. Some peanuts aren’t as perfectly shaped as the others. And if the little white M is missing or faded, that sad candy faces the same doom as its funny-looking cousins.

5. Bill-facing. In my wallet all the money is facing the same direction and they go from the twenties in the back down to the ones in the front. And none of them have folded corners. The till/drawer at work most certainly MUST be faced at all times. If it isn’t I will fix them immediately. Even though I have trained a dozen people to run the register and stressed the importance and the need to have the bills faced they still don’t do it. It really shouldn’t bug me, but it does. I do not get upset at them or anything like that; I will simply spend the time to face them.

NOTE: Being prevented from doing these things does not cause me anxiety. If someone offered me ten bucks to mess up the registers drawer and leave it that way, I would not have a panic attack. It would be very possible for me to not do any of these. The thought of having the drinks at Quiznos all facing backwards does not interfere with my other thoughts. Therefore I don’t have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.