Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Am I anal?

I never ever thought of myself as anal. Just the opposite. I am a total slob sometimes and it doesn't bother me one bit.

About a year ago, I bought my daughter one of those organizers for her room with little buckets for legos, dolls, crayons, etc. It stayed organized for about a week. Ever since then, I've lamented the disarray of the organizer, but never fixed it. Finally, last month, I spent hours re-organizing all of Mel's toys, and ever since have been really rigid about making sure everything goes in the right place.

When my mother was visiting recently and I kicked up a fuss when she tried to clean up by tossing toys into the organizer randomly, she commented to Mel, "Your mommy always likes to have things organized, but most people don't care."

Is that true? I don't think so. But I'm a doctor and all docs are at least a little anal, right?

Evidence that I am anal-retentive:

--My kid has an organizer in her room
--I like making lists
--I recently reprinted a bunch of note templates because they were off-center on the page in the first printing. But they were REALLY off-center.
--All my H&Ps have their pieces dictated in the exact same order (HPI, PMH, allergies, meds, ROS, etc), whereas everyone else seems to do them haphazardly. And that bothers me a lot.
--I never ever leave off the date and time
--I am super worried about running out of everything, so as soon as we're low on any item, I immediately put it in my phone to remind me to buy it
--People do often comment that I seem organized

Evidence I am NOT anal-retentive:

--My apartment looks like a hurricane hit
--I let the organizer stay unorganized for like a year
--I let dishes go unwashed for days
--My closet (if you saw it, you'd understand)
--I never change the toilet paper roll
--I sometimes wear wrinkled clothes

So which is it? I have no idea.

13 comments:

  1. I'm married to an organized slob!

    I think you're human. We're all anal retentive in our own way. I think that is what makes life interesting.

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  2. Nah, not organized, hurricane at home, dirty dishes for days. Your list shows though how much you do do. My hope is when my kids learn to always clean after themselves, we will do better as a family. Don't have the same hope for my husbund.

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  3. I am very similar - certain things MUST be done in certain ways, lists are essential to my mental well-being. However, to say my house is cluttered is being kind.

    I prefer to consider people like us as enigmas.

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  4. I don't think you're anal at all. If you're a slob, then you're definitely NOT anal.

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  5. We all have our sticking points. Certain things bother me, different things bother my husband, we each like telling the other how OCD/anal they seem.

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  6. I agree with Ana that different things bother different people. I'm not nearly as tidy as my mother, but tend to clean a lot more thoroughly than her when I do clean. It also kind of depends on how much energy I have at the moment! And if you clean all the time, you never get anything interesting done.

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  7. You're the kind of anal who thinks they're not. The worst kind! Haha.

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  8. No you are not anal because a lot of things you mentioned as "anal" are just good habits you formed in med school, residency, etc.

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  9. Well, I am a nurse, and I like to think of myself as 'selectively anal'. How about that??

    Just enough to drive me crazy...not enough to make me completely sane.

    Peace in Christ,
    Ceil

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  10. Where is the toilet paper? Does the neighbor have to slip some under your door? I'm never using the towels in your bathroom!

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  11. Well, making lists puts you in good company with Liam Neeson, who may have gotten the part of Oskar Schindler due to his list-making: http://youtu.be/MKTh7zBIcrM

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  12. No, you sound pretty normal. I am the child of two physician parents. My mother is the same way. Every once in a while she tried to organize our rooms and it never worked. However, if we needed her to do something (pick us up, help with something)- we had to write it on the white board because "If isn't written down, it doesn't exist."

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