You down with OCD? Yeah, you know me!

If you don't already watch the television show "Monk" on the USA network, you should. Tony Shaloub plays a former cop turned private investigator with uncanny skills. Sounds like any other PI show, but the twist is, he has OCD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

One of the folks on the tour here claims he has OCD. I'm wasn't sure if he was kidding about it or not. One day he was folding towels and arranging them in even stacks. So to test his claim of OCD, I turned down the corner of one towel to see if he noticed. He did, and promptly flipped the corner back up and smoothed out the pile. I then re-arranged the piles into uneven stacks. He came back and put them back in order, nice and even, taking a moment to smooth out the tops of each pile. I was pretty convinced he had a mild form of OCD.

Until today.

To test him again, I took his cases, which he often sets up in a "U" shape square to the stage, and twisted them to a 45 degree angle. And he didn't flinch! He left them at the angle and went about his business. When asked, he said, "Well, at least they are straight to each other."

For a while there, I thought I had OCD, because I set up my consoles the same way everyday in the same order. I make sure that the cable piles are neat. I always plug in data lines in order, 1 through 7. I use my finger to measure that the consoles sits at exactly the same distance on all sides to the tables. I even lay out my floor mats in the same colour configuration. I almost numbered them to make sure. I get a little riled up when the set up has to be different because the building is different. Even then, I still put together my gear the same way every day.

So I looked it up on line, the symptoms of OCD. If I understand the article correctly, what sets OCD people apart from "neat" people, is that they are fully aware that they create their own compulsions, almost to the understanding of it's irrationality.

For me, the thought process for setting up my gear exactly the same way is, if there is a problem, it will be easier to trace. It will be easier to repeat a problem, if I repeat the order in which it is set up. I can then stop at a point when the problem occurs and fix it.

So I guess I'm neat.

As for the other roadie on tour. I think he's just neat as well. He like his stuff set up the same way, and obviously isn't bothered if it isn't. Not to mention he started putting his bag in the other junk bunk lately.

My wife thinks I'm neat too. But not a "clean" neat, she's seen my closet.