Sealion II

I was once described as "probably a little neurotic" by a world-famous psychiatrist (true story! Not a very interesting one, though), but I'm really not sure what he had in mind. My lovely and talented blogging sister has asked me to write about a phobia or neurosis, and I'm stumped.

This is not so much because I am a paragon of mental health as because all of my phobias and neuroses are rather murky and ill-defined. I have no liking at all for spiders, especially when they appear larger than life in magazines or televisions--all those eyes and legs. Ugh. But it hardly rises to the level of phobia.

I used to have quite a strong neurosis (if that's the correct word for what I'm about to describe) about Turning Off the Microscope. My former boss had a thing about it, and she ripped me several times for leaving the microscope lamp on overnight; eventually I would go in to check the microscope every night before leaving. This is simple prudence. However, sometimes I would check, and then start to leave, and then feel compelled to check again, just to be sure. On a bad night I would do this three or four times--not quite to the level of OCD, but definitely not normal.

Only one of the many reasons I'm glad than my current boss is an easy-going guy.