Pretty Maids All in a Row

Maybe the Mary of the nursery rhyme, who was quite contrary, also had Aspergers. I don’t think I’ll admit to being pedantic, though there are people who see me as that. I do find it irritating when people are inaccurate when they describe things, though. That way of thinking is deeply ingrained though the job I do. In writing software you have to be precise and accurate. Computers are completely unmerciful when it comes to tolerating impreciseness, and I used to be equally so. Abrupt is the word people used to use to describe the way I treated them.

I used to have the firmly held ungodly belief that people didn’t take any notice of what I said, so I used to come over very forcefully, all guns blazing. Having been healed, I have been learning the social graces, but I wouldn’t say I’ve reached a state of perfection as of this point in time.

I am still very much a creature of habit, eating meals at the same time every day, arriving at work and leaving at the same time each day. This stemmed originally from insecurity and trying to make sense of the world. When I was very young, I think I was quite obsessive about having to have things just so, the way I liked it. I was brought up with routine, which I liked. I don’t have the same compulsiveness now, which comes partly from being healed and partly from just growing up.

When I have a tedious job to do, I tend to line things up in neat rows and tackle it in an ordered fashion. That is a kind of coping strategy, which I know a lot of men employ for the same reason when doing tedious jobs. However, I have met people who when eating will, for example, line all the peas up on their plate in a row and then eat them one by one. I don’t think I was ever that extreme, but I did have a deep need to have everything in order which is not really compulsive any more.

(Footnote: my wife does what I call extreme sewing. She sews thousands of tiny hexagons together to make vast quilts. I don’t know how she does it. To me it’s a kind of self-inflicted torture, but she really enjoys it. I don’t think men are cut out for that kind of thing.)