Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, otherwise known to the masses as OCD. I’m not certain if I’ve ever met anyone that needed to turn the doorknob seventeen times before exiting or if they need to tap their mouth three times before answering a question, but what I am quite certain of, is that every single one of us obsesses over something that needs to be done a certain way.

For example, I HAVE to stack the dishwasher without assistance. This doesn’t mean for a second that it runs more efficiently, but I do get a kick out of ‘Tetris-ing’ the shit out of every cup and plate to fit my entire cupboard in there. Thus, if the hubby even attempts to put a spoon in the knife compartment or a bowl in the plate rack, I tend to have a mini meltdown.

Crazy, right?

There is no rhyme nor reason why we do these things. The dishwasher would not be damaged if my hubby haphazardly stacked it or even put it on half empty, but my brain can’t handle the inefficiency of his efforts. Not technically and OCD tendency, it’s still a task that must be completed to my overly high standard.

Does anyone else tend to mark these psychotic tendencies down to OCD?

Kristy 😀

My Biggest Pet Peeve!

Can you really narrow down your biggest pet peeve to just one thing? I know I can’t. Perhaps that’s because I’m too tightly wound, a giant prick or maybe there are just one too many things that really piss me off.

Most people can identify the one thing that really does annoy them more than anything else. It could be that someone is talking over the top of them, nose pickers, slow drivers or even assholes that wear active wear in the grocery store. There are a multitude of things that we as a human race do on occasion that irritates the person or people closest to us.

For me, though it may not sound too far out of the realms of relatable, my biggest pet peeve is my husband. Not him physically or even personally (otherwise I wouldn’t have married him), but his ridiculously annoying habits.

He walks all manner of debris over my freshly cleaned floors. He never hangs up the bath mat. He throws his clothes next to the dirty clothes basket and he steals my Tim Tams. He panics over the most random and easily resolvable situations. He’s on his phone all the time and he makes suggestions rather than just outright telling me what he needs or wants.

Truly, the list could go on and I’d hate to see what really irritates him about me. But as you can see, not one particular thing peeves me more than another. I’m just that A-typical personality that’s hard to please, but rather ‘pleased’ the hubby still loves me despite me undoubtedly being his biggest pet peeve too.

Kristy 😀

Do we really care about others or is it just pretend?

Do we really care about others or is it just pretend? An interesting thought and one surely as varied as the billions of entities living on this planet.

I think it’s fairly safe to say that 95% of us actually do care about the other people around us. It might not be expressed in the depths that you care for a family member, your spouse or child, but if we didn’t care to some extent then social niceties would have become extinct long ago.

Yes, we are raised to stand for the pregnant lady on the bus, let the elderly man have your seat on the train or let the person busting for a pee behind you go into the public restroom first. These are our social graces and the small measures of kindness that we can impart so easily on a daily basis. But, caring about others can be a deeper, more personal thing. Caring about others can be as simple as smiling at a stranger that seems down in the dumps, helping your neighbour to mow their lawn when they’re unable to or sharing a sandwich with a co-worker without food.

These are mostly acts that we enact regularly and without thought, but imagine what else we could accomplish if we cared just that little bit more? Could we end poverty? Could we stop world hunger? Could we lessen depression by knowing there is always someone who cares?

The truth is, there’s so much more that all of us could do to show that we care and improve upon. Whether we have it in us isn’t really the question, but whether we care enough to do more is the real crux of the matter ...

Kristy 😀

Secrets to putting up with annoying habits.

I don’t think there are any hard and fast rules or even solutions regarding how to endure bad habits, especially from those you love, but you can choose how you react.

Bad habits belong to everyone. I myself have chewed my fingernails on and off since I was nine years old and have never really been able to stop the digits from entering my mouth over the course of every single day. I also jump in on family and friends and finish their sentences if I feel it’s taking too long to get their point across. I’m impatient like that.

But, when it comes to the bad habits of those around us, it’s easy to nit-pick at their failings rather than take a massive look inwards. For example, my hubby is amazing in so many respects. He’s kind, protective, intelligent and often quite thoughtful, but he can also leave the wet mat on the bathroom floor which tends to drive me batshit crazy. He also never hangs his towel up straight, never makes the bed, throws his dirty clothes next to the laundry basket rather than in it and uses every cup, plate, bowl and spoon in the kitchen rather than re-cycling.

I’ve truly thought about murdering him on many occasions, but instead of committing myself to life imprisonment, I decided to alter my perception of his bad habits. Because let’s face it, nagging never changes a bloody thing. First off, I had to decide if the wet floor mat was that big of a deal when I have plenty of other dry ones in the cupboard. Could I scoop up the clothes and pop them in the basket as I walked past and we have a dishwasher so is it really a drama that he empties the cupboards?

The answer was staring me in the face. His bad habits are bad habits that I’ve imposed upon him. He was quick to remind me that I cut my fingernails on the couch, never put the rubbish out and force him to eat vegetarian when he’s a carnivore. The point is, our perspective interprets what is and isn’t a bad habit and although some things simply annoy or aren’t that good for us, how we react to each and every situation depends on whether or not it’s bothersome or not that big of a deal.

Kristy 😀

What I would love to learn how to do?

Did you ever have a goal or ambition or dream of something that you would love to do? Well, I’m not really that person. Sorry.

I have ideas and generalised life targets, but nothing I truly ‘love’ to do. Sometimes I wonder if that’s sad that I don’t have anything in my life that I’m truly passionate about, but I figure since I’m well-rounded enough to enjoy multiple different things, that it’s okay not to love just one individual thing to the extreme.

For example, I enjoy writing and often find it very cathartic (if my newborn baby isn’t screaming in the background like he is right now ... BRB)

Right, so I also like to exercise and eat right because it makes my body feel good and helps balance any negative emotions that may be festering in my mind. I enjoy reading health & Fitness magazines when I get a spare minute (if I get a spare minute. No one tells you when you have a baby that you’ll never get a spare minute again ... ☹)

Anyway ... I adore catching up with my closest friends and family and I like to travel more than I like to eat peanut butter, but are these things something that I would love to do? Would I love to learn a new language? Would I love to recycle more? Would I love to stop my hubby from farting in bed? The answer is yes, but I don’t necessarily love these ideas enough to make them happen which brings me back to the original notion that you need to be passionate in order to execute.

Does anyone else feel like passion evades their drive?

Kristy 😊