Your Bizarre Rituals

[Clara Bow]

We all have a funny little habit that we have, a quirk if you will. What are yours?
I have to get ready to go in the same order every morning. If I miss one little step I'll be all weird...
I also have to face the same direction in the shower...sideways until it's time to wash my hair.

[hobish]

I get quirked if my socks aren't washed in pairs. Having one clean and one dirty sock in a pair throws me off. It's my own personal neuorosis. I've tried buying packages of the same white sports socks so if i put an even pair in the wash they'd match up, but the bf steals them & then they're all stretched out & don't match anymore.

[Twik]

OK, my mother finds this one confirmation that I'm definitely weird -

A couple of summers ago, when I was visiting her, I was helping her make beds, when I suddenly cried out, "Oh, no, we'll have to remake this one - no one can sleep on this!"

When she asked me why, I explained, "Because we put the sheets on upside down. All the flowers in the pattern are pointing towards the foot of the bed!"

She was, shall we say, surprised to hear that I can't sleep on upside-down flowers.

Yes, my own sheets are all solid-colour for that reason.

[Bijou]

We all have a funny little habit that we have, a quirk if you will. What are yours?
I have to get ready to go in the same order every morning. If I miss one little step I'll be all weird...
I also have to face the same direction in the shower...sideways until it's time to wash my hair.

I can't sit with my back to the room in a restaurant (or anywhere that has tables to sit at.)  I want to sit preferably in a corner of the room facing the room and the door.  Walking into a room, my favorite corner would be the far one on my right.  Oddly enough, I can sit at a table not in a corner if it is against the wall and I am facing the door.  What if there are two doors on opposite walls like at the coffeehouse we frequent?  The main door on the street (not the alley door) is the one I must 'watch'.  I think they call it the gunslingers position.  I actually can sit anywhere but have this horrible feeling the whole time and some positions (like on the end of a table that is against the wall with my back to the room are just plain no-go to me.  I would say I was sick and leave.)
I have to check everything just before I leave the house, even if I have already checked it.  The heater, the doors, the stove, the lights.  I tell myself, "You've already checked that!"  but I check it anyway in
case dh came along behind me and turned something on.  I go around saying "off...off...off...off..." 
If I go to the movie house I have to wash my hair (which is below waist length and which I never wear up) when I come home, and my clothing, all with good reason.  There was such a problem with lice in this community for awhile I just can't get past that old better safe than sorry thing.  That's only one of the reasons I hate to go to a movie, so wait for stuff to come out on dvd.  The other reasons are the cost and the noise from the neighboring theater.

[Pixie]

I get quirked if my socks aren't washed in pairs. Having one clean and one dirty sock in a pair throws me off. It's my own personal neuorosis. I've tried buying packages of the same white sports socks so if i put an even pair in the wash they'd match up, but the bf steals them & then they're all stretched out & don't match anymore.

Okay this made me laugh..... My shoe size is a little boys size 4 1/2 or 5.... Hubby wears a men's size 13 there is no way he can steal my socks.... but I can steal his!

[Mrs. Eclipse]

I can't start a song and not finish it.  If a song starts playing, I have to wait until it's at the end before I can stop it and move on to something else.  If I don't, then it's just left hanging until I listen to the song again.  Which is a pain with some of my favorite five-minute songs.

Later I found out that it didn't bother me if a song faded out because it sounded like it was closing, so sometimes if I really need to go (like when I start a 6:25 minute song and suddenly remember I have to be walking out the door) I'll turn the volume down slowly until it's silent, and then stop the music.  Works like a charm.

[Cyndi]

I can't start or end my day without kissing my Godzilla and Piccolo figurines. :p

I have to put lipliner all over my lips before I put on lipstick or else the lipstick wears off in two minutes. But my lips have to be COVERED in the lipliner before I can put lipstick on. Even if I spend twenty minutes trying to get one missed spot, I'll do it.

If I'm listening to music on CD and I get interrupted so that I have to pause it, I have to start the song over or it won't feel the same.

[Clara Bow]

Jean, I have to be in the gunslinger seat as well. I get literally nervous if I'm not facing the room. I also have "off" rituals (love that OCD). I have to make my husband watch me snuff the candles before we go to be and I have to look at something else in the room when I turn things off or put on deoderant so that I can remember that object and know that I did the corresponding activity.
And no, I could not sleep on sheets with upside down flowers. I would go out of my mind in two seconds flat.

[Alida]

I can't sit with my back to the room in a restaurant (or anywhere that has tables to sit at.)  I want to sit preferably in a corner of the room facing the room and the door.

I've never considered that a quirk

Then again, DH is like this, as is a close friend.  As they are both well-trained (both through experience and one in the military), I trust them enough to sit facing the wall and not the door.  Anyone else?  No.

[GotSquatch]

I can't go thru drive thru's at fast food places.  I have to get out and order inside.  I like to see who's preparing my food there.  It drives my twin sister crazy when I do this.

[Bijou]

Jean, I have to be in the gunslinger seat as well. I get literally nervous if I'm not facing the room. I also have "off" rituals (love that OCD). I have to make my husband watch me snuff the candles before we go to be and I have to look at something else in the room when I turn things off or put on deoderant so that I can remember that object and know that I did the corresponding activity.
And no, I could not sleep on sheets with upside down flowers. I would go out of my mind in two seconds flat.

I understand the  candle thing...I don't like to use candles.  When I was a smoker I had to take all of the ashtrays and put them in the sink before I left.  When I take my pills in the morning I put the bottles back into the little box I store them in, upside down so I'll remember what I already took.  I have to take some of them again at night so I can turn them all upright again so the next morning they're upright.

[T'Mar of Vulcan]

We all have a funny little habit that we have, a quirk if you will. What are yours?
I have to get ready to go in the same order every morning. If I miss one little step I'll be all weird...
I also have to face the same direction in the shower...sideways until it's time to wash my hair.

Well, having too many rituals like that is one of the signs of OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder). I have OCD and it's not fun. There are three main types:
rituals
germ phobia
checking

I have all three in various degress, with germ phobia being the worst. Anytime I touch anything I deem "unclean" I have to wash my hands. Colddrinks I bought at the shop that I haven't yet rinsed off. The backpack I take to school (school is UNCLEAN; anything that touches it MUST be washed - I take a bath every day as soon as I get home). Books I've bought and haven't wiped off. You get the idea. If a relative kisses me I will make an excuse ASAP and rush to the bathroom to wash my mouth/face. If they hug me I have to take a bath and put on clean clothes. I wash my classroom and blackboards with Domestos (bleach/disinfenctant) regularly.

As far as rituals go, I have to do all my morning preparations in the same order or I have to start over. Same with turning lights and switches on and off. If I don't turn off the outside light, then the lounge light, then the stair light, then the bathroom light, then my own lounge light WHILE TURNING ON THE BEDROOM LIGHT, then the main bedroom light, then my bedside lamp... have to turn them all back on until I get to the part where I got out of order, and start over.

Checking... oh yeah. Plugs, windows, doors, the gates, you name it. I have to THINK about stuff while I'm checking; if I do it unconsciously and don't remember, I have to double-check again. Once I left my hotbrush on and was halfway down the street before I realised; my mother tried to convince me that I was just being OC as usual, but I made her go back and it was still on! So that just made that aspect of my OCD worse.

Despite this I'm pretty okay and most people who meet me would never realise there's anything OCD about me because I manage it well. But those who do know are pretty tolerant and accepting, I have to say. It's like, "Oh, Marina has OCD, just let her wash her hands or she'll be miserable." Or, "Don't put Marina's bag on the floor! Do you WANT her to get upset? The floor has GERMS!" Which is nice of them.

Neither the psychologist or my own doctor recommend that I go onto any kind of medication for this, since I can usually manage without the checking/rituals/germ phobia making my life too different.

[Esther_bunny]

As soon as I get home from work I have to get my clothes/lunch/workout clothes ready for the next day. Until I do that I cannot relax.

[megswsu]

I like things to match. I can't stand mismatches dishes, glasses, etc. When we did our registry the plates I chose came in four different colors. So if you wanted you could have multiple colored dishes. I only wanted one color. Then my mom for my wedding shower got me the desserts plates she insisted I *had* to have. Well she got them in multiple colors. Those were returned almost immediately so I could get the plates that matched the rest of the set. (A friend teases me since she's the exact opposite and would do the mismatched thing).

[Clara Bow]

I have OCD and I am a checker. I can drive you nuts in two seconds flat. I'm also a organizer...things have to be where they go.
I have that thing about things matching also...