Did you eat yoghurt with that spoon?
Since I was a little kid, I’ve been obsessed by many habits and thoughts.
For example, I usually eat things three by three — if they allow for it, like pasta, chips or cherries. And in many other situations I’m obsessed with the number 3: I scratch my head 3 times, I cough 3 times and try to do 3 steps — or multiples of it — when I want to go somewhere.
Another thing that obsess me, is water: I can’t drink water that has been left out of the fridge, or has been poured for more than a few minutes. It stinks!
I know it’s not true, indeed it takes a couple of days for it to start stinking, but I can’t help it. And when I have to drink it, I’m a bit disgusted.
And I know how this may sound stupid because most of the people on Earth have to drink stinky — and poisonous — water, but I’m obsessed.
Finally, I don’t like to use used kitchenware like glasses, plates, forks, spoons and knifes. Even if they have been used by my mum, dad or sister! I don’t know why, but I can’t.
And the thing that disgust me the most is to use a spoon that has been used to eat yoghurt. It doesn’t matter who used it: I might have used it, but it would disgust me anyway.
A guess it has to do with yoghurt being acid and living a bad smell on metal.
I guess I might say I’m obsessed with the number 3 and, in general, with bad smells.
And what do obsess you?
I know for sure everybody has her/his own obsessions/habits and, if you want, I’d like to know what are yours…maybe we could even start a blogosphere meme about obsessions… :)
This entry was posted on Saturday, July 16th, 2005 at 13:41
Tags: ego, obsessions
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I have many obsessions too, in this period i started eating many yoghurt and i have the same problem, if the spoon is used (also by me) i can’t use it to eat another yoghurt. I saw it like a dirty bad little spoon :)
About food obsessions, I can’t drink in a bottle I have been drinking in more than 30 minutes ago. I think about the bacterial multiplication occuring in the bottle and that makes me feel disguted.
I also have an obsession about keeping my hands clean, I cannot stand to have my hands dirty for more than 30 seconds. When I cook, I wash my hands everytime, compulsively. Same thing when gardening, it’s very hard for me to handle having some soil on my hands. When I take the subway or the bus and I have to stand, I never put my hands on the metallic bars. I had a few accidents because of that, but, oh well, I’d rather have a broken arm than a dirty hand.
About that number 3 obsession, I keep looking at the time on the clock when it is near 3h14 and 15 seconds. I always wonder if something would happen when the time was exactly PI. That is stupid because PI on a clock would be more like 3h08 and 28 seconds, and well, because nothing will be happening!
Chinese people are very obsessed about numbers in general. I have visited many temples where a lot of thing were following some rational distribution, where on a circular floor, made of many rows of bricks, when you divided the number of bricks from one row to another, you would always get 3…well or something like that. Chinese are also obsessed about number 8 which means luck. They try to get the more number 8 everywhere they can, on their car plate, on their phone number, etc. There are so many numbers that goes like 11 00 88 88 88 88. Because 8 in chinese if a flat “ba”, it sounds like “bababa-babababa” when you pronounce it.
Just stumbled on your site through Sporadic Nonsense. I wanted to comment, because I have a fasication with numbers and compulsions. With me it’s 5’s or multiples thereof and then the number 11. I’ve always liked them. Yes, I do have OCD. I’m not ashamed. Actually, I am quite open about it if people care to hear it.
Anyway, for example I tend to wash my hands 5 times. Although, strangely enough that has dropped to 3 over the past few years.
Other strange items, I was supposed to be born on the 5th, but I was 20 days late and ended up being born on the 25th — of the 11 month. :) Or if you take 5 + 25 + 11 you get 41. Then 4 + 1 is 5. I know some of it’s reaching and subconsiously it might be me creating this. But I think it’s cool. That, and I have always been a math/numbers person.
One of my issues with food is if it looks strange to me at the moment. I can’t eat it. It’s hard to explain in words, because most of the time it’s my imagination working. It can be food I’ve eaten before, but if at that moment something looks strange, I just can’t convince myself to eat it.
BTW, here is a cool numbers site: http://www.stetson.edu/~efriedma/numbers.html
Just wanted to say hi too. Cool site. I might be visiting some more.
Oops I forgot two things after reading Vincent’s post.
1) Every now and then I like watching the clock when it turns 12:34 56 seconds. I’ve always liked how it was 1,2,3,4,5,6 at that time of the day.
2) In reference to the Chinese, there have been phone numbers that sold for ridiculous prices because they contained these numbers. Here is a blog post about it. Some guy bought a cell phone number for US$1.1 million and an airline bought an 8888 8888 number for US$280,000.
Sorry, third times the charm. How’s that for irony. 3 posts on the post about 3’s. :) My link apparently didn’t post for the Chinese number article I pointed out:
http://wen-xin.net/archives/2004/04/13/a_cell_phone_number_bid_for_1_million_in_china.php
I can’t think of many obessesions or maybe I don’t see them. I have few like I wash my hands every other minute when cooking. I always check the time on the clock and every day I see the time showing 11 minutes after which happens more then twice a day. Pretty scary I always wonder what it is with the 11 minutes.
Oh, yes! I forgot to tell I check if my hands smell continuously and every time I touch something. And of course, I wash them every time I can.
I think I’m a bit germophobe! ;)
@ Richard: BTW, thanks for stopping by…and for keeping reading my blog, too! :)
lol sounds like an OCD (obsesive compulsive disorder), though dont be too worried about the name, i’d say most people are to some degree. Like for me, I cant stand meat that I THINK has fat in it.. Like… Fat that I would taste. So I dont eat alot of Pork, Steaks, Ribs, etc.. has to do with how I grew up. Also, I cant stand cheese, at least raw. Its because I know how its made, and ew. Though I can sometimes stand it when its cooked with something else. So, yeah, everyone is weird. When you realize everyone has quirks and nobodys perfect.. its easier to be more tolerent & understanding of other people’s inperfections.
I took a folklore class when I was at Berkeley and the professor (who, I should add, was a freudian) explained that in most interpretations of the use of the number 3 in folklore it represented the ‘Triad’, meaning the male genitalia. According to his theory it was used to create an symbolic male dominance in the stories.
Well, I don’t know about that but here’s something freaky for your reading pleasure: I was the third child born at 3:33 in the morning of 9/21 (multiples of 3)