Things I Like About Myself - Day 10
I like my categories obsession.
>Long ago, I wrote an entry a little bit about my (fairly mild) OCD and a lot about one of my main obsessions, efficiency. If you care to read that, it's here: http://sea-of-change.livejournal.com/272298.html
(Reading that entry now is totally fascinating because it was before Jago was born and I am SO MUCH LESS obsessive now. Wow.)
So I'm going to quote a little from that entry:
"At this point I believe that all of my obsessions (as in OCD) can fall into three categories. I think of these as efficiency, categories, and my hair. My hair is a much smaller category than the other two, it's just my only obsession that doesn't seem to fit into the two categories."
I do still have the categories obsession pretty strong. The efficiency obsession can be very useful, but it is often quite stressful. The categories obsession is quite delightful to me and even pleasurable.
There's a lot of scratching the itch in my brain when it comes to categories.
So what the hell do I mean by "categories?" It's the only word I can come up with to try to summarize what this obsession it.
It has to do with different versions of the same thing.
I think the best way to explain it is to give examples.
I really like colors. Seeing the same item in different colors is extremely pleasurable. Seeing those items organized by color, even better. (This is why, as many of my friends have seen, I used to organize my books by color.)
I like covers of songs, especially really unusual ones. How different can a thing be while still being the same thing? A bluegrass version of an ABBA song? Hell yes.
I like going to the grocery store. I especially like the cereal aisle. All those boxes with the different colors and pictures and types of cereal. And there are other levels of categories here, because you have several boxes of the same brand but different flavors. And you have several boxes of the same flavor but different brands! Oh it is awesome.
I love archetypes. I love pantheons of deities. Man, that is exciting stuff to me.
I like in movies or stories when you have characters that are all these different types, like you'll see this in high school movies a lot. This one's the funny one, this one's the smart one, this one's the popular one, this one's the weird one. I love overly simplistic categories of people.
I love collections of things. I could probably get into collecting almost anything. I think the only thing I truly collect right now is pitchers. And I especially go crazy for the plain white ones, because then you can really see the differences in shape. Ooh I get excited just thinking about it.
And I do definitely also like actual categories, like the way things are organized. Organizing is the crossover point between my two major obsessions. The categories and the efficiency get to work together.
Of course it also happens that I can sort of overwrought and stressed about it, trying to make the *most* efficient organization. Sometimes I just have to let something go.
The first time it ever occurred to me that this categories thing was a thing for me was summer after high school in a Dunkin' Doughnuts, looking at all the varieties of doughnut in the counter. It was just so pleasant looking at them, and I realized, Hey I always like this kind of thing.
I said something about it to my then boyfriend, David Jones (not from The Monkees but like the Monkee he was only 5'3"). He said, "I know you do." And I thought, Wow if it's so obvious that he noticed it, it must really be true!
The world is really full of categories. I get endless pleasure just from moving through the world and observing.
>Long ago, I wrote an entry a little bit about my (fairly mild) OCD and a lot about one of my main obsessions, efficiency. If you care to read that, it's here: http://sea-of-change.livejournal.com/272298.html
(Reading that entry now is totally fascinating because it was before Jago was born and I am SO MUCH LESS obsessive now. Wow.)
So I'm going to quote a little from that entry:
"At this point I believe that all of my obsessions (as in OCD) can fall into three categories. I think of these as efficiency, categories, and my hair. My hair is a much smaller category than the other two, it's just my only obsession that doesn't seem to fit into the two categories."
I do still have the categories obsession pretty strong. The efficiency obsession can be very useful, but it is often quite stressful. The categories obsession is quite delightful to me and even pleasurable.
There's a lot of scratching the itch in my brain when it comes to categories.
So what the hell do I mean by "categories?" It's the only word I can come up with to try to summarize what this obsession it.
It has to do with different versions of the same thing.
I think the best way to explain it is to give examples.
I really like colors. Seeing the same item in different colors is extremely pleasurable. Seeing those items organized by color, even better. (This is why, as many of my friends have seen, I used to organize my books by color.)
I like covers of songs, especially really unusual ones. How different can a thing be while still being the same thing? A bluegrass version of an ABBA song? Hell yes.
I like going to the grocery store. I especially like the cereal aisle. All those boxes with the different colors and pictures and types of cereal. And there are other levels of categories here, because you have several boxes of the same brand but different flavors. And you have several boxes of the same flavor but different brands! Oh it is awesome.
I love archetypes. I love pantheons of deities. Man, that is exciting stuff to me.
I like in movies or stories when you have characters that are all these different types, like you'll see this in high school movies a lot. This one's the funny one, this one's the smart one, this one's the popular one, this one's the weird one. I love overly simplistic categories of people.
I love collections of things. I could probably get into collecting almost anything. I think the only thing I truly collect right now is pitchers. And I especially go crazy for the plain white ones, because then you can really see the differences in shape. Ooh I get excited just thinking about it.
And I do definitely also like actual categories, like the way things are organized. Organizing is the crossover point between my two major obsessions. The categories and the efficiency get to work together.
Of course it also happens that I can sort of overwrought and stressed about it, trying to make the *most* efficient organization. Sometimes I just have to let something go.
The first time it ever occurred to me that this categories thing was a thing for me was summer after high school in a Dunkin' Doughnuts, looking at all the varieties of doughnut in the counter. It was just so pleasant looking at them, and I realized, Hey I always like this kind of thing.
I said something about it to my then boyfriend, David Jones (not from The Monkees but like the Monkee he was only 5'3"). He said, "I know you do." And I thought, Wow if it's so obvious that he noticed it, it must really be true!
The world is really full of categories. I get endless pleasure just from moving through the world and observing.