Lifes Curious Rituals
It just struck me today how many (strange) little life rituals I have. Below are some of mine:
1.
When shopping, I never purchase an item that has been placed right in front and this goes for everything that I buy. I pick clothing items which are placed somewhere in the middle pile/rack/shelf, magazines from the middle or back of the stack, bottles of cooking oil from the back of the shelf or the third or fourth bottle in. I don’t know but I just feel that every shopper who passed by has touched the items which have been placed right in the front of the displays.
2.
When my subscription magazines come through the post (Oprah and Easy Living) I rip off the plastic jacket and put the magazine down in front of me. Then I read all the headlines on the cover page – ‘How to lose 10lbs doing nothing.’ ‘Sex life in a rut? Dig yourself out with our top ten tips.’
Then I flick through its pages but I don’t read anything at this point. I then put the magazine on my bedside table and there it will lie for the next few days until I cannot bare the suspense any longer and I pounce on it. I finally settle down (mostly at bed time or on the rare occasion, in the afternoons when my daughter is having her nap and I have a few spare minutes on my hands) and read EVERY SINGLE PAGE word for word. This can be a long drawn out process which can last anything between 1 week and 4 weeks, when the next magazine arrives through my door.
3.
I MUST have a spotless kitchen before I can begin to cook – and I wash up along the way as well so that by the time I have finished, you’d never know any cooking had gone on.
4.
I colour co-ordinate my t-shirt piles.
5.
The first thing I do when I boot up my PC is check my blogs. Okay, okay, I check the comments section on my blogs.
6.
All documents in ‘My Documents’ folder are placed neatly into files. Every document MUST be placed in a file. It annoys my eyes to see a stray document floating around. If there isn’t a file I can readily fit it into, I create a new one.
7.
I talk to myself when I shop. I’ll rephrase that: I hold a running commentary with myself when I shop and it may go a little something like this:
I have just spotted a pair of shoes that I like –
‘Hmm, I like those. How much I wonder?’ I flip them over and check. If they are out of my budget range, I put them back and walk away. If they are within budget, the commentary continues…
‘Not bad! Lucky day’
‘Now…what can I wear them with?’ (At this point I spend a minute or two mentally going through my wardrobe.)
‘Hmm, I have that dress which they’d match’
‘Hubby will kill me if I buy yet another pair of shoes’
‘I could always hide them’
‘Coming to think if it the shoes I bought last week are very similar’
‘Yeah, but they are a different colour’
And on it goes until I finally take a decision. Oh, and before you ask, yes I do get some funny looks from time to time.
What are your little rituals? I’m curious and want to be reassured that I am not alone!
1.
When shopping, I never purchase an item that has been placed right in front and this goes for everything that I buy. I pick clothing items which are placed somewhere in the middle pile/rack/shelf, magazines from the middle or back of the stack, bottles of cooking oil from the back of the shelf or the third or fourth bottle in. I don’t know but I just feel that every shopper who passed by has touched the items which have been placed right in the front of the displays.
2.
When my subscription magazines come through the post (Oprah and Easy Living) I rip off the plastic jacket and put the magazine down in front of me. Then I read all the headlines on the cover page – ‘How to lose 10lbs doing nothing.’ ‘Sex life in a rut? Dig yourself out with our top ten tips.’
Then I flick through its pages but I don’t read anything at this point. I then put the magazine on my bedside table and there it will lie for the next few days until I cannot bare the suspense any longer and I pounce on it. I finally settle down (mostly at bed time or on the rare occasion, in the afternoons when my daughter is having her nap and I have a few spare minutes on my hands) and read EVERY SINGLE PAGE word for word. This can be a long drawn out process which can last anything between 1 week and 4 weeks, when the next magazine arrives through my door.
3.
I MUST have a spotless kitchen before I can begin to cook – and I wash up along the way as well so that by the time I have finished, you’d never know any cooking had gone on.
4.
I colour co-ordinate my t-shirt piles.
5.
The first thing I do when I boot up my PC is check my blogs. Okay, okay, I check the comments section on my blogs.
6.
All documents in ‘My Documents’ folder are placed neatly into files. Every document MUST be placed in a file. It annoys my eyes to see a stray document floating around. If there isn’t a file I can readily fit it into, I create a new one.
7.
I talk to myself when I shop. I’ll rephrase that: I hold a running commentary with myself when I shop and it may go a little something like this:
I have just spotted a pair of shoes that I like –
‘Hmm, I like those. How much I wonder?’ I flip them over and check. If they are out of my budget range, I put them back and walk away. If they are within budget, the commentary continues…
‘Not bad! Lucky day’
‘Now…what can I wear them with?’ (At this point I spend a minute or two mentally going through my wardrobe.)
‘Hmm, I have that dress which they’d match’
‘Hubby will kill me if I buy yet another pair of shoes’
‘I could always hide them’
‘Coming to think if it the shoes I bought last week are very similar’
‘Yeah, but they are a different colour’
And on it goes until I finally take a decision. Oh, and before you ask, yes I do get some funny looks from time to time.
What are your little rituals? I’m curious and want to be reassured that I am not alone!
posted by hundred and one at 3:31 pm
3 Comments:
Hi there, thanks for coming by my blog, I'm glad someone's reading it! Are you sure you have nothing to say? It may feel that way to you, because you're used to your life, but to someone who doesn't live your life, what you have to tell is fascinating. I loved this post, your sense of detail is great, and I related to quite a bit of it!! I have a trail of half-empty notebooks behind me too. This is what I've learned: just write. Just sit down, give yourself a time limit, a prompt and just start writing. Don't think about anything else, don't stop till you're done, don't censor yourself, don't wonder whether it's good enough, whether anyone will comment or read it or care, at the end of the day, it's the doing that will make you feel good! Good luck.
@ One more list: You're very welcome. Good luck with making up your 101 list. It's a lot more time consuming than one initially thinks.
@ Verity: Oh, I'm a very faithful reader. And you know what? I'm going to implement your advice and just write. Thanks
What a really interesting look at the funny little things that make you you! I'm going to have to start paying attention to what mine are.
I do know that I have to read a magazine sequentially, page by page. I'm so glad that most magazines stopped doing the "continued on page 167" thing because that just did not appeal to this compulsive woman!
And thanks for your kind comment on my affirmation post! I'm glad you found it at a good time :)
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