~* YES, I AM A BIT O.C. *~

I am OC with English grammar. I am not exactly Ms. 100%-correct-English- grammar-&-spelling but I try to be as much as possible. I mentally nitpick my friends' English in their blog posts and email messages as well as my officemates' email messages and conversations. I am cautious of where I put my apostrophes, subject-verb agreement, hanging/orphan phrases, homonyms (common mistake: loose vs. lose) and stuff like that. I am particularly amused with the "with regard to/in regard to/as regards" phrase. I once considered it a pogi-point when this guy did not commit the mistake of saying it as "with regards to". I still cringe everytime I hear this person say "it depicts the purpose" [defeats! defeats! defeats!!!]. I just don't know how to correct the person without offending him/her... *sigh*

When I'm reading books, I keep a dictionary on hand coz I immediately want to look up a word when I don't know its meaning. Sometimes I try to skip looking it up and go on with reading the pages when it's just so damn exciting and gripping but then I get this nagging thought in my head so I still end up looking up the strange word.

I am OC with saving/backing up my computer files. When I'm working on my monthly reports in the office, I save a copy on my local hard drive and another copy on our network folder. When we still had floppy disks, I would also save a third copy in it.

I am OC with eating stuff. My officemates particularly noticed that I looked a bit peeved when they forked off here and there on a slice of cake that we were sharing. You see, when I eat a slice of cake, I slice it from one side only... progressing from one end to the other. I get rattled when one slices a bite off one corner and another one forks off a bite on another end. The cake looks pangeeet eh when it gets sliced every which way. hehe.

Another dining-related OC-ness is that I make sure I get proportionate parts of the dish in one spoonful that I eat. For example, when eating sinigang, I make sure that I have all the vegetables "represented"... a kangkong leaf and stem, a shred of pechay, a piece of labanos, a bit of gabi, a slice of sigarillas, a sliver of okra, a piece of meat plus rice. Every sahog must be there in my spoon.

I am OC with people eating MY food. I hate it when people I'm not even close to just "dive" their utensils on my plate. Just recently, I was eating shanghai rolls with its sweet & sour sauce on the side and then this person just dips her shanghai rolls on MY sauce. *gaaah* I wanted to scream at her and say "HELLLOOO?! Can you get your own sauce to dip into?!" I'd probably be less pissed if she at least asked my permission first... I still wouldn't want her to but I'd say a fake "yes" anyway coz alangan naman I'll refuse dba since she asked. Kainis. Kainis. And this same person just got MY table napkin which lay on the side of my plate. *AAARGGGHHH* Again, if she had at least asked if she could get those napkins which I set aside for MY use, I wouldn't have been pissed. It hasn't happened to me yet but I'd be surely pissed if somebody said "patikim..." sabay kuha ng food on my plate. I just think people like the above-mentioned instances are just plain crass. No table manners at all. Grrr.

I don't like mixing/having different dishes on my plate all at the same time. That's why I hate buffets. I hate it when my kare-kare sauce bleeds onto the barbecue beside it (something like that). Whenever there's a variety of dishes in a meal, I eat the dry ones first and then the saucy ones. Or if both have sauces, the clearer/thinner sauce first before the colored/rich ones.

I am squeamish with sharing straws and glasses for beverages or even utensils for food. Unless you're a close friend, I will cringe at the thought of laway-to-laway.

I am OC with my lip balm and make-up. I don't like other people dipping their filthy finger on my Born Lippy jar. I cringe at the thought of somebody using my eyeshadow brushes on their eyes or my lipstick touching somebody else's lips. *Ewww*

I am "germ-o-phobic". I never let my ass touch the toilet bowl even in the office CR. I only get to sit comfortably in our house's toilet. I use my elbow to flush if it's not the infrared/foot lever kind of flushing system. I use hand sanitizer/wash my hands after using the rest room. I try not to touch door handles in public toilets. As much as possible, I don't hold on to the escalator's rubber handle thingies. Imagine some gross person with a bad cold wiping his nose with bare hands or picking his nose and touching the escalator handles. *ewww* I think it's gross to hold tightly on super-worn Peso bills and tarnished coins. I wash my hands when I get to the office after commuting. I hold my breath as long as I can when somebody sneezes in a confined area (like elevators, FXs, buses...) coz I don't want to breath in freshly-sneezed-on air.

I'm a bit OC. So what?! ;p