I went to sleep last night and woke up at 3:00 in the morning to get a glass of water. When I tried to go back to sleep, I realized that I had only one pillow – and I have slept with two pillows all of my life. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get back to sleep with just one pillow. I guess what they say is true – old habits never die.

As our lives progress, certain things that we do each and every day become a part of our routine, and usually become so much a part of our lives that we begin to develop a certain way that we do them and any deviation from the normal way we do them would be unthinkable. All of us are used to doing certain things a certain way – especially me.

I am an extremely anal-retentive person and have been all my life – so it is obvious that I have many habits and very specific ways to do them. My life has always consisted of lists and schedules and procedures for everything from the most inane task to the most important. For as long as I can remember, my CDs have always been alphabetized, my clothes have always been arranged using color-coded hangers – and even the way I wash my body in the shower has always been done systematically – but my anal-retentiveness goes so much farther than that.

Take the way I eat for instance; When I have shellfish like shrimp or mussels, I will not eat one bite until all of them are shelled; when I have a burger, if the bun is toasted or the cheese is burned – it goes right back; and when it comes to breakfast, I will absolutely never eat “breakfast food” after 12:00 noon. Everyone I know thinks I am a freak when it comes to the way I eat, but that’s just how I am. My record keeping is just as anal: I have a file for every single thing you could possibly imagine, from take-out menus to bumper stickers – and if you so much as write your name on a piece of paper – I’ll file it.

Is this behavior strange? I’m sure it is – to everyone but me – but I can’t help the way I am. My anal-retentiveness has become a habit – and you know what they say about habits...