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Piece #9 - O.C.D.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. This is one of those funny things you might never know you have until someone else points it out to you...but then, are you willing to accept it! I say this only for the sheer fact that my wife kept telling me this, but I really didn't believe her until something major happened! Or, I should say someone...Spider-man. I usually liked follow the development of a major motion picture, you know – where they’re going to shoot the film, who is going to star in it; but when it came to Spider-man, I might as well have been the director! I was riveted to the news as I watched the rights to the film alone, were being fought out in the courts. After Sony had won the battle, the countdown was on. The only reason I bring up the movie is because that was the peak of my understanding of this problem. Well, as they used to say in Spaceballs "Merchandising! Merchandising! Where the real money from the movie is made!" (God Bless you Mel Brooks!) Spider-man came in like a flood. I had a couple of posters, beanies, several action figures, the pop cans, cups, several T-shirts, boxers, pj's, video games, pillow case (my wife would have shot me if I got the comforter.), buttons, two giant cardboard ads for both Spider-man 1 & 2, toy cars, comics/books (of course, duh!), blanket, beach towel, I even made a Build-A-Bear Spider-man (See Video)!!!...I think you get my point because there’s more, much more. (Trust me, I’m not kidding.)  Here I had all this stuff, littered around our sun room and as I looked around thinking to what my wife had told me; I finally started to notice that maybe I was going a little over the top. I mean really, what in the world was I going to do with all of it? Open a museum? The worst part is that...I'm not alone! My twin girls have OCD too, so where ever we went, my twin girls would race through all the crap some of the stores would have, just to find something that had Spider-man on it! Not incredibly helpful here! (I know they do it because they love me, but it isn’t assisting me much…especially the nasty looks I get from their mom!)

It's been a very difficult cycle to break having the Aspergers. I have to watch myself closely to make sure I'm not getting things I really don't need. This is something that the twins have to watch out for themselves. At least, they knew early on about this, I'm just a little behind in the game. The biggest problem is what happens when one gets burned out of the thing their obsessed with?! Thankfully, I've loved Spider-man my whole life, but the same could be said for Batman, Superman and the X-Men. (Can you tell I'm a comic geek? Yes...and married to a hot woman as well!!!) A real danger is when the OCD focuses itself on one thing and one alone. (This is the twins Achilles heel.) For example, one of the girls loves Chinese food, so much so that when she gets it in her head that she wants Chinese food, then that’s the end; it's that or nothing. The other one will sometimes want to see a certain movie and if someone else wants to see it as well, but not at that moment; too bad she'll watch it without you!

The one that confuses me the most is my wife. I have no idea if she just has a craving or it’s OCD, but she'll get on these very particular food kicks where she could go a month or more 'craving' a certain type of food. Some of her favorites have been chewy jawbreakers, mint chocolate Dibs, pickled asparagus/gardenia mix (it was tough being married to her when she was eatin' that stuff!), butter flavored puffed corn, white chocolate truffles and lately it's been red velvet cake ice cream and gourmet peanut butter. She doesn't pig this stuff down, she just likes to snack on it for a long period of time until she just gets tired of it. The only thing she has an obsession for is crackled glass, and I don't help her a lot in this department. She has to tell me that she already has enough pieces; however, I still go rummaging through antique stores trying to find that special one for her collection anyway. (So you know it is a nice one too!)

For the most part, we do try to watch out for each other. It is difficult to tell the kids or my wife that maybe you're going a little over the top. One thing is for sure, trying to think of presents to get each other isn't that hard to do. We just have to make sure they don't already have it!


The Song of Inspiration [Check it out on iTunes!]:

Song: “Escape”

Artist: Newsboys

Album: Born Again


Here's a special YouTube video the twins and I made about my O.C.D. I thought you all might like to see something a little different! Yes, I did want to be Spider-Man for Halloween on many, many occasions! No...it's not going on EBay, at least not yet.








See what Paint can do? This would be my dream and my wife's nightmare! She hates it went I try to kiss her upside down.  :(

 
 
 
 
 

 

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