Day 13: I’m Just a Tad OCD…

1) I lack patience. I am a “here and now” person, and I expect others to take tasks and deadlines seriously. I think this has to do with my military brat upbringing. When you were asked to do something, you did it. You did it fast, and you did it right. And that is how I am ‘til this very day. I also loathe lines, wish most mini-van and SUV driving women would adopt a sense of depth perception (hey, I wrote most, not all) and that people with strollers would learn that you cannot block shopping aisles. This list could go on, but sufficed to say I have some work to do to improve this weakness of mine.

2) I hold a grudge. This is a character flaw I’m working on. I have a very hard time letting things go. I am a once bitten twice shy kind of person. It is hard for me to trust again. I have had recent struggles with this actually, but I don’t want to be a bitter, angry soul so I know I need to work on it. Just don’t cross me, okay? /sarcasm

3) I have a hard time just saying ‘no’ which leads me to doing too much. Charity work, taking on the work of others, loaning someone money I’ll never see again? Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! This year I told the hubs that if I go to him saying I am going to join a Fantasy Football League, to tell me NO! I tell myself every year I am not joining a league and then I do. Sometimes I even win, but I digress. At sports bars I am too busy checking ESPN, scores and stats on my phone to really just enjoy the games. I’ve kept my promise to myself. NO Fantasy Football this season! I am also not going to commit to large charity roles for the rest of the year. I’ll volunteer, but I am going to commit to giving myself and my husband more of my time when I am in town. ‘Just say no’ is a motto I should learn to adopt more often. I could stand to be more selfish.

4) I tend to be abrasive. You milspouses and brats will get it. Growing up with a parent in the military on military bases – you tell it like it is. There is no sugarcoating. Want something? Ask. Don’t like something? Say so. Find something cool? Express it. Same goes for living the military lifestyle as an adult. You may not like what someone has to say or how they say it, but you’re going to hear it anyway, and take it like a champ. This carries over into the other areas of my life. Charity work – I will straight out tell someone if I think something is a bad idea. Yet it’s not a cut down. It’s an opinion and my intent is to give feedback. Work? I received some example renderings and tore them to shreds not realizing how the email came across until a co-worker joked with me about it. I re-read the email and could see why it would have been construed as pretty brutal. Yet in my mind, I was being straightforward and had no intention of being harsh. I have to remember that conversation and text are two different things. Another work in progress…

5) I am a bit OCD, thus not being good with change. While some may see this as a strength, if you move my soap, or my shampoo and conditioner bottles even a degree from how I have angled them, I will confront you and ask why you felt it was necessary to move my things. This is why I believe the secret to a great marriage is separate bathrooms (/insert chuckles here)! I get to the airport two hours early. I like to take the same route. In my office when the housekeeping service (or would it be the office-keeping service?) dusts my photographs it drives me insane that they do not put my photos back in order and that they move my knick knacks around! Now does it really matter if my husband’s picture to the right of my computer screen is moved two degrees? Not really. But I will fix it or it will distract me. I also cannot have anything on my desk that doesn’t belong there. A colleague comes by and puts a coffee cup on my desk, then walks away and forgets to take it? It was already bad enough the coffee cup was sitting on my desk! I have to either walk it to the sink, dump it out and throw the cup away or walk it back over to the person who left it there.Events board in my departments “pin board” – all white thumbtacks. I KNOW this stems from my childhood. Everything has a place and everything in its place. I even prefer to load the dishwasher because my amazing husband who I think can do just about anything, well…let’s just say I am happy to do it. I will go back in and change the order of the dishes and plates, otherwise. Yes. Borderline crazy? I am okay with that. 😉