Monday, August 22, 2005

Is this ocd?


Sitting in the nail salon waiting for nails to dry is excruciating. It's not like waiting for a bus to pull up or a doctor to call you in or a friend to walk in, because those all are very specific events that happen or don't happen, and you react accordingly. Not like drying nails - you just want them to get to the stage where you can walk out and go about your business without smearing or completely messing them up. If you leave now, will they be strong enough to handle grabbing the key, putting it in the lock, opening the door, climbing upstairs, another key, lock, another door, -- or should you wait another minute? Two?

Pedicures are okay, because as your toes sit under the little floor fan you can read a magazine, use your cell phone, play a game on your palm pilot... but when it's your fingernails, you can do nothing, but wait. How long again? Have I been sitting here 4 minutes or 7? Are they almost dry?

So I made up a game where I have to count sets of five things - usually the first five unique things I see out the window. Bicycles, dogs, strollers, children, cell phones, hats, white cars driving by, umbrellas (when it's not raining), yellow taxis, people holding cups of coffee. I pick four or five and then have to sit until I see 5 of each.

Today it was 5 bicycles, 5 hats, 5 strollers, 5 bicycles, and 5 cell phones. I got hung up on the strollers. It all depends on the time of day, you see, and at 6 pm there just aren't that many strollers out. Nannies have returned home to await the parents, and parents who are lucky to be home already are not yet out for an evening stroll for Italian ices or blockbuster. Or dog walking with the stroller.

I cheated and left without meeting the stroller quota. Usually this is a blatant tempting of fate, but as of now, my nails are still pristine. Yay!

2 Comments:

Blogger jane said...

i know this will sound out there, but my niece (she's 36) has mild tourettes & the counting thing is a sign of that. could also be ocd. or could also be a counting cuz your bored thing. :)

6:28 PM  
Blogger medusa said...

I do resort to counting a lot - although I don't think it's that severe. But I do silently count the steps up to my apartment every night. Not that I could tell you how many there are, because the numbers just fly back out of my head, but I do sometimes catch myself doing it.

10:19 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

ring logo
Writing Desk Webring

Join | List | Random
Previous | Next
Powered by RingSurf
Locations of visitors to this page