Minor Preferences

I am reading "Diary of a Diva" by Barbarella Fokos. Lizzie let me borrow it after she read it. I am enjoying it very much. I have met most of her family and one of her sisters is Lizzie's good friend, so is fun reading about them in the book too.

I just finished a diary entry called Minor Preferences. Is the term she uses to write about her "mild" case of OCD. I started thinking about my also "mild" case of OCD.
I think I started realizing I had a peculiar or quirky way about me when I was in my early teens. For example, our apartment in Barcelona had a long hallway, from the living room to my bedroom. Every night when I got to the end of the hallway I would quickly get on my knees for about a second and go to my room. I was careful to be by myself , sometimes when there was people around, like my sister or my mom, I would wait till everybody was sleep, then get up and do it.

Another thing I did (and to some extent I still do), is touching 3 different surfaces that they were close together but had different textures. Another thing was a need for symmetry, like setting the table, the silverware had to be perfectly straight and in line, not just mine, but everybody's at the table. I always volunteered to set the table especially when we had family over.

My family noticed some of my quirkines (the term OCD had not been invented yet), but mostly they ignored or made fun of it, so I was very careful to do it in a very unobstrusive way.

I think I was about 14, when I was walking with my mother on our way to catch the bus, I was holding a scarf sand I had to let it touch the ground 3 times everytime we crossed the street, this coupled with my having to touch 3 different surfaces made my mother snap. She decided there was something wrong with me and made an appointment with a psychiatrist. I remember going and taking a bunch of tests, both oral and written, having my eyes checked and my cranium measured, etc. The final report was that I was highly intelligent :) and that there was not a thing wrong with me. I am sure the diagnosis might have been different now.

I still have minor preferences that I do every day. Before I leave my room to go outside I have to look at 3 pictures in my room, in the right order. Same thing at night before I go to bed. When we go out to eat, I need to be the last person eating or drinking, even if it's only a crumb. My family knows about it and now I have to be super careful. Tristan found out about it and he made sure he was the last one to eat or drink, to the point that sometimes I had to go back to the table after everybody left so I could go and have a sip of water or something.

I think I am getting better and not doing it so much (ha). I still touch 3 surfaces randomly, but I don't have a set pattern. I also had to touch the windows glass with my nose, leaving tiny nose prints all over, I don't do it as much anymore.

They are minor things that don't interfere with my daily life, or hurt anybody. Why do I do it? I just have to. I don't feel right if I don't. Is it quirkines? are they peculiarities? or is it OCD? I will call them, as Barbarella does, minor preferences.