Quirky rituals
 

Some of us are obsessive compulsive. We wash our hands 40 times a day, or everytime we touch a doorknob. Some of us delicately fold our toilet paper into a perfectly quilted stacked square.

Other people need to touch the top rail of the staircase before going into another room and some people count the number of telephone poles they pass by on their way to work.

Some of us have rituals that just don't make ANY sense to anyone but ourselves.

What kind of quirky rituals do you perform? Are they extreme or are they pretty reasonable? What got you started on these rituals and why do you always perform them?

I try to do everything in sets of threes and sevens, due to some mild obsession with pseudo-numerology. I have a friend who has to do everything in even numbers - it gets annoying sometimes.

I used to avoid stepping on lines - an example would be if I was walking down a street, I would make sure my feet were entirely on a single paving slab and not half-on two and therefore being on the "line", if that makes any sense.

I don't do it unless I notice / think about doing it. After writing this post and remembering about it I'll be doing this for a while for sure :(

I usually count almost everything I do, for no good reason. My explanation for it is "you never know how many ____ are there until you count them."

I have to get into my truck a certain way, and I have to do the same ritual when I come in at home from the office.

I ritualize almost everything I do, really. Everything becomes habit, everything gets encompassed. And I have a really HARD time breaking away from ritual. =/

EDIT: Why I initially started the thread ahaha. I was fiddling around on my desk and I realized that I have a huge problem if things aren't perfectly straight on my desk. It puts me into a horrific mood. I also have major problems when color coded things do not all follow perfect suit.

If I listen to music and walk at the same time, I have to step so my left leg hits the ground in 1st and 3rd beats.

Walking to progressive rock is hard because of this.

Most of my rituals are based off of sports superstition, like always putting on my right skate first, not skating over lines before the game begins, and things of that nature. Compared to some of the other guys I've seen I think it's pretty tame.

I like to do everything in evens and symmetry. Especially when I am eating something, I try to chew it an equal amount of times on both sides of my mouth, with the same types of teeth, or if it is something that is required to be cut, I try to have an even number of pieces, so that both sides of my mouth get equal treatment.
This obsession over evenness and symmetry has toned down over recent year though, which is kinda good, because it used to be blatantly obvious and disruptive before.

I always chew on the end of straws if I drink with them. It's just something to keep my hands occupied I think. I don't do it because I enjoy it, I've cut my gums a few times actually but it's fun and I continue todo it for whatever reason.

When fooling around with volume counted in numbers, I just have to have a volume of like 5, 10, 15 or 20. It can't be like 16, that feels totally wrong :P

I put my spike on my track/ x-country spikes in a certain order - form left to right and I have a pair of racing shorts which I do wear for anything but racing...
If I don't have those shorts - I think I'll lose or something

I always put my left shoe on first. Also, when I go to sleep, I make sure the closet door is securly shut, make sure the regular door is securly shut, check to make sure my alarm clock is set to the right time, and turn off the lights with one hand on my bed post to make sure I find my way.

This happens with all the men in my family. As for 'strange rituals', I'm pretty much the same as Syndrome: volume's gotta be a multiple of two or five. I go crazy when there's a one or three on the end. Seven and nine don't bother me much, though.

I can NOT sleep in an unmade bed. Also, if I think of something that I should have done - even if it's only for a half second, like a very fleeting thought - I won't be able to get to sleep until I get up and do it. It's very Joan Collins-esque, I suppose, but I've been known to get up out of bed all pissed off and mad at myself and go scrub the bathroom. I'm totally powerless against it, too. GRRRRR!!!!

You people who count things are freaky.

All my CDs absolutely have to be in alphabetical order, and all of my mp3s must be in all lowercase, same for the filename. I will always dig up exact change so I don't have to break bills, and I have to go sock-sock-shoe-shoe. Those are my only real quirks, though.

Whenever I make a list, it MUST end in a multiple of 5.

Multiple of 5 applies here: when something happens that differs from the norm in cases like this, I have to force myself to not think about it otherwise I'll flip out.

Everything on my desk has to be parallel to the edges of the desktop. Nothing can lay in the middle on an angle, it has to be in the middle and perfectly straight, or along the sides. Also, if it's along the sides, it has to be touching the edge of the desk (surface is about a quarter-inch below the tops of the side supports, glass sitting on ridges). And the corners have to align.

If ever I'm nervous to take a test, I tend to take out 2 more pencils/pens than necessary. I don't notice this either, but I suppose I'm always afraid one will break.

After washing my hands in a public restroom, I try not to touch the handles of the main door when leaving.

I do that too, and just never realised that it might actually be a quirk.

Since I don't like peas/beans of any kind, if I even suspect some is in my food, I will stop and dig around in my food for a full five minutes and pick all of them out. A perfect example of this is whenever I eat shrimp fried rice. Seems like everybody puts peas in there, which I can't stand. I don't bother ordering it without peas because it seems like such a big deal to do so. However, I will dig around in my food and make sure all the peas are out before I start eating.

Everything must be symmetrical. When somethings not symmetrical, especially if it would be very easy to change it to be symmetrical and no one's doing it, it bugs the hell outta me.
Also, I tend to meow, moo, and quack a lot.
I also can't get to sleep unless I have at least one of the kitties in bed with me, it's very dark, and very quiet.

Every time I have a drink when I sit down to eat a meal, I always drink before I take any bite of food. Honestly, I don't know why.

- washing hands in public washroom: I grab the lower end of the handle with the sleeve of my coat (especially after guys go straight to the door from the urinal)
- putting holdable palm-sized objects down, I always leave my middle finger touching the object last, much like the way pieces are placed in Hikaru No Go
- listening to music: I usually try to walk the tempo of whatever song is playing. This becomes really hard if the song is over 100 bpm
- adjusting glasses: I push up my glasses on the left side with my left palm because it feels stylish to do, sometimes even if I don't need to adjust my glasses
- keys: I always check that I have my keys in my bag around three times since I live in apartment and there's no way to get in without the access key/buzzing
- online: I check every bookmark each time I turn on the computer
- for buses: I hold my bus pass up for a prolonged period of time to make sure the bus driver doesn't have to ask to see it
- piano: I always make a mistake when I first start practicing for the day, otherwise I fear that the rest of my songs will be riddled wh more mistakes than usual

If you come over to my house for an extended stay of sorts, you'd better take off your shoes and coat (if you're wearing one) after you come in. For some reason, I seem to think that people will be leaving soon if they don't take off, at least, their shoes.

I don't really know why I feel that way; I've been that way as long as I can remember.

Other quirks of mine include some sort of sensitivity to sound: if the amount of talking in a room is not at specific levels (relatively quiet or normal volume, for example), I will be able to get no work done. This is to say that I become too involved into listening to the sounds instead of what I'm working on >_<

I'm pretty lazy, yet I also have a bit of OCD in me. For instance, when my dad leaves for school in the morning we must take a certain route or I feel very uncomfortable. No reason to, really, because we end up at the same spot, but I still hate it. Another example of this is when I'm in school. Going from class to class, nearly the same thing happens. I take the same route every day, never changing. I eat the same lunch, in the same order, every day, too. So weird.

I always get paranoid building things, like treasure chests and stuff so I always re-glue about like 5 times even though they are good enough before...cant help it.

For a while also I used to try to count the lines in the street, like in the middle. I remember getting up to about 3,000 one time and my head wanted to explode.

Yes. YES! My sentiments exactly. I know some things can't be symmetrical, but why not let things that can be, well, be?

I try to memerize the road signs if I take the same route somewhere all the time.

It's hard.

I also, like many, dont like to step on lines. I dont know why...

I usually blow my nose in the shower into my hands and then wash my hands afterward, then I don't have to blow my nose at all that day.

I also usualy toss inexpensive items into the air when I'm only carrying one thing, I like how they flip in the air.

Also the last of my Rituals I'm going to mention is where I lock my car every time I get out. I'm not joking, I usually drive a kid home from school everyday and even if he stays in the car, I usually lock it.

When I'm eating food like peanuts, M&Ms or other foods that are little bits and pieces I have near compulsive need to give both sides of my mouth equal amounts of the food, 1 for the right side, 1 for the left, so on and so forth.

When I'm in a car sometimes I will try and see if I can block certain things like signs, posts, and other small objects from view using one of the car's window pane dividers. STrange and I don't really know why I do it, but I suppose thats why I'm posting it in this thread.

I used to do something like this, with the notable change that it would be done with any food. I would concentrate too much on the chewing of my food that I'd chew things equally distributed across both sides of my mouth.
This was stopped when I stopped thinking so much about what I was doing :\

Wow, I forgot about that. I do that as well. I don't even know why, it just feels uneven if I don't.

Axe'd.

I don't think I do many.. but sometimes if I'm watching tv or a movie, and there's this word that gets stuck in my head, I spell it over and over again in my mind. Sometimes I try and 'type it' (no keys or anything.. just with the right fingers where they would be on a keyboard).

Also, I can't stand the feeling of flour so if I'm baking bread I have to wash my hands at least 20 times.

I guess used to always lace my belt so that the buckle and the button matched up. And I like everything to be in nice big orderly piles or arranged neatly in a specific place when I tidy up - if there's some little tidbit that just doesn't fit in any category, I often throw it away. But most other times, everything else fits under the umbrella of vaniy. In general I'm a slob.

Musically, I'm full of quirks. I love to tap out guitar right-hand arpeggio patterns when I'm bored, or practice piano scales on my knee. I also love to bang my head when I'm listening to particulately passionate music. I look like a loony when listening to Rach's Sonata #2, and waltzes have me throwing up my head on the ONE of the ONE-two-three. And then, having recently discovered my latent perfect pitch abilities, I like to figure out what note stuff sound at. Like doorbells, busy signals and over-enthusiastic "Hi!"s. And it's true - most toilets flush on a E-flat...

I have two bathroom rituals: I need something in between my feet and the floor (because I have an inaccurate and careless father) and between my ass and the water (read: toilet paper).

I try to find patterns in numbers I see whenever im bored (in class, driving). Like I'll stair at the clock and its like 9:23... so I try to find a pattern with those three numbers.

Whenever I cut my nails, fingers or toes, I alway try to get it in one big piece off each finger. Then I wrap them in tissue paper and throw them away.

My shameful secret. I just don't like walking around my apartment and gouging my feet with pieces of nail.

Yeah, I tend to do things in fours, it's really weird. Things have to be symmetrical too, or at least somewhat lined up. I don't mind mess as long as it's a somewhat "organised mess". I'm weird.

Let's see... when sitting kinda bored, I always have one hand up on my shoulder: sort of a nervous habit I guess.

Online: I visit certain sites when I get online, those being: Mail, Fark.com, Gamingforce, Slashdot, and Deviant Art. Its only afterward that I start actually browsing the web.

I also HATE not knowing what time it is, so I always make sure to have a watch with me. If I'm waiting at the bus, it makes it much more bearable if I know that I have X minutes to wait, where X is however long it will take. This applies everywhere IRL. I just have to know what time it is.

Strange, I always drink everything up after I've eaten, I don't touch it during the meal.

Also, when going to bed I check my alarms (I have 2) some extra times. It even happens that I'm lying in bed and just have to check them one more time. Same goes for leaving the house when you're alone. I check the stove, the oven, the fridge, all lamps and all electronics LOTS OF TIMES before leaving the house. After that, I might check out the door one more time. It happens that I walk back to my house and check the door once more to see if I really locked it.

Everything on my desk has to be straight. The monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse and everything else has to lie in a perfect straight angle and with symmetrical space from each other.

I tend to make sure certain things are in even numbers. For example, if I'm listening to the radio or a CD or whatever, the volume has to be at an even number (if the volume dial is digital of course).

I always feel uneasy if it's at an odd number.

- I make sure I'm constantly downloading something whenever I go on the net, or else it feels like I'm being unproductive

- Always check to make sure that I have four things when I go out: "Wallet, Ipod, Phone, Key" in that order and try to feel around to see if they're there throughout the day, many times over.

-I swing my backpack around or make sure that I'm always moving whenever I'm outside in case some is pickpocketing me and I don't know it, even if there are many other people around.

i have to be totally symmetrical otherwise i cant stand it... e.g. i dont wear a watch because id need one on both arms...
Tom

I check my mail nearly 80 times a day. Not because I want new mail. Just because I can do it. Sad, yes.

Washing my hands nearly every hour. I'm certain Sassafrass was merely making an example, but I am that bad.

I drink well over 10 glasses of water a day, but because I like it and not because of all that dietition stuff people advise you to do. So I always have a water bottle in one hand or on my desk.

I'm unable to work in a messy environment, so I've grown the tendency of being a clean freak. It's a nice quality, yeah, but I've been called obsessive about keeping things in order so I should try and change that a bit.

I'm extremely anal about my environment when I draw. All my paper, pencils, and pens have to be in the right place for easy grabbing and access. I dont know if this is a considerable quirk or not but I get VERY annoyed when someone stands over me while i draw. Unless I specifically say its OK I kind of consider it rude.

whenever I adjust the volume on my TV, I have to have the little marker thing line up with the bottom of one of the letters in the word 'VOLUME'... like the middle of the 'M' or the end of the 'E'

also, I have to have something under me when I sleep. A pillow, my comforter, or even my arms... It's difficult for me to sleep without something tilting half of my body up a little bit... When I fall asleep with my arms under my chest I always wake up with no feeling in them, which is kinda cool. ^_^

same here... most of what you guys have posted are th esame for me...
lol at least im not weird...
Tom

Haha! So do you like skip your foot every time then? For something that's odd time (3/4, 6/8) How about something that is in 5/4 time?

For me, when I go up or down a flight of stairs, I have to start with my right foot no matter what. It just feels awkward using my left foot to go up or down a flight of stairs.

I just realized that I do another one this morning: If I haven't worn a pair of shoes in a while, I have to stick something down into the toe and root around to make sure there isn't a Black Widow Spider in there (I saw a documentary about them once and they really will nest in unused shoes).

But here's the thing - I have to do it like five or six times before I'm fully convinced that there's no Black Widow in there.

Whenever i have to sing, like at a social function, in church, especially in choir class at school, i always take off whatever extra shirts i'm wearing i.e. Sweat shirts jackets, everyting except my T-shirt. My first instinct to sitting down in choir class is to remove my sweat shirt, and have in on my lap. Sometimes it will be a comfortable temperature where it doesn't matter either way, sometimes it'll be hot, and i'll be thankful for having done so, or somtime i'll realize like ten mintues later that i'm bloody cold. Despite what the temperature is, i never put it back on, until i get up to leave. I can't figure out why.

I don't think I've ever been in that choir room when it wasn't way too damn hot, but then again, my ideal temperature is about 15 centigrade.

i saw teh same program and act in exactly the same way! it was about the black widows killing people in Australia by living in teh shoe!!!
Tom

Sometimes i find it unbearably cold in there, like in some strings classes.

But keep in mind, this isn't just at school, this is at church and whatnot.

I do the shoe thing too, although that's more out of sheer terror than anything else as I did once find a spider in my shoe — except it was less "found" and more "put my foot in and felt it squelch". :(

I also now check my bed every single night by pulling the covers off and looking around, after this...

http://olympus.tkvault.net/bedtime001.jpg
http://olympus.tkvault.net/bedtime002.jpg
http://olympus.tkvault.net/bedtime003.jpg

No, it's not the same spider. It really did happen twice.

Fuck, now I'm not going to sleep all night.

I have no fear of spiders. I was eating dinner at my father's friend's house. He had this hot daughter my age and we talked about school and stuff. Suddenly, she pointed at a spider on the floor, I picked it up with my bear fingers, squished it, and threw it out. She didn't talk to me the rest of the night. Did I do something weird?

I think a little fear is healthy when it comes to spiders; after all, some of those cute little angels can cause some serious damage if allowed.

Not that you get any that can do damage around here. The bastard above is a close relative of the hobo spider minus the maliciousness (hobo is tegenaria agrestis, mine is tegenaria domestica), but that's about as far as it goes.

I cant help but triple check to make sure my keys and wallet are still in my pocket. I have a paranoid feeling that my wallet or my keys are gonna fall out of my pockets.

I'm the same way. I will check my coat pockets around every half-hour to make sure my keys, wallet, and phone are still in there. I think to myself that because the pockets are sort of loose, things could totally fall out and I might not notice, so I keep making sure they're there.

This happens when I park my car, too. I'll lock the door but will turn around two or three times to make absolutely sure I didn't forget to lock it, while simultaneously checking my pocket to make sure I didn't leave the keys in the car.

I do the no-walking-on-lines thing sometimes when I'm out and about, although it usually only happens after I look down and realize I'm stepping on a lot of them, or something.

Whenever I drink a can of soda I have to tap it on the bottom with my index finger seven times before I can open it. It used to be three times, but I've slipped further down the cracks to insanity...:(

Okay, I have a really weird habit when it comes to eating bananas. After I open a banana i bite the top off and spit it out for some unexplainable reason. My family and friends notice this and constantly ask me why i do that. Another one of my habits is that I never finish drinking a bottle of water, I always leave like half a centimeter to a centimeter of water at the bottom, another unexplainable habit.

I fell victim to the myth that if a can of pop has been shaken, tapping the top of it repeatedly will reduce the pressure and you can open it worry free. I tried it one in elementary school. I shook the hell out of the can, then i tapped the top of it repeatedly alternating between my index and middle finger for about 30 seconds, then opened it. It was perfectly fine, no explosions, no nothing. Even after that event, i've never been totally sure of this method's integrity, so i've never done this test again, for fear of an explosion.

regardless, I do tap the top of my pop cans about 9 times, alternating between my index and middle finger before opening it, just in case. As you can see, i'm rather paranoid about my pop cans exploading.

Another weird one for me is, and i must say i have no idea where i picked this up, watching cartoon characters to see if they step on lines on the sidewalk. If they do, i used to outright cringe at the sight of it, now i just sort of tense up, and get a weird feeling in my stomach. If they don't, i get a huge wave of relief. I've never been a line avoider, or anything like that, but apperantly i care whether or not cartoon characters step on lines.

My Findings: Homer Simpson is the worst for that.

Im the same way about my car. I double check the doors and make sure my lights, radio, etc isnt on. I think its a good habit to have, but the wallet thing can get quite compulsive.

Ive done the walking on lines thing, but I usually try to position my foot perfectly in the squares. Its not to the point that I cant walk right, but its just something I do without thinking.

Everytime I leave my house, when I lock my door, I turn the doorknob all the way to tight as hard as I can so my hand hurts, so when I walk away and wonder if I locked my door, if my hand hurts a bit, it means I properly locked my door. But even afterwards, I still fear my door is unlocked.
I pace constantly to the point where I cant think straight sitting down, I cant enjoy music sitting down, I must be walking or driving to enjoy it. Nearly every night when I listen to tunes, I pace back and forth in my living room for about 2 hours just jamming out to metal and occasionaly glancing at muted TV.
theres more, but thats the most annoying of it

I have an obsession with getting the opinions of my looks from women.... not really for flirting or whatever, but I like to have an idea of how I look to women.

I also shake my legs when sitting down, usually when I'm bored, like either back and forth side to side, or shaking it like a dog.

Same. Every night/morning before going to sleep, I'll turn the largest light in my room on, shake my comforter, and then the pillows. I have a bunch of borax in little bowls scattered throughout my room. Not much for spiders, more for anything else that's multipedal that I don't like.

Before leaving a place after having set down I must always feel for my iPod, cell phone, house keys and train/bus/metro pass. If one of them is not where I think it should be, I begin to frantically search my person until the misplaced item is found.

When printing lecture summaries I always have to have them printed individually even though the summaries are released in sets of two or three in one document.

When sitting down I am almost always tapping one of my feet or moving one of my legs in some way.

I hate all of you leg shakers.

I usually check to make sure my alarm's set for the next morning at least five times before I go to sleep every night. I always hate being late, and I feel like the only way I'm ever late to anything is if I oversleep (thing is, I can't remember the last time I actually did oversleep).

I'm also one of the people that avoids stepping on cracks/lines, though if I do step on one I'll have to be sure to step on another one with my other foot. I always try to make steps equal out for every surface I walk on, too.

Best thing I know of is my one professor that would knock every corner on his desk before and after every lecture. None of us knew why and nobody ever got up the nerve to ask him. We did wonder if it had anything to do with the three to four two liters of diet Pepsi he'd go through every day at school, though (his office looked like a recycling plant).