Oxymoronic Girl

Oxymornic Girl

I'm the sort of person that both anal and laid-back people both dislike.


This has been confirmed as my family has often struggled in determining my "true" personality.


I am not a compulsive list maker, ironer, or even clothes-washser. I sometimes go to sleep with eye make-up on, and there have been even a few occasions when I have forgotten to brush my teeth. I pride myself on skipping "hair washing" days, and shaving is not a daily occurence. It doesn't bother me that my car appears to have "leprosy" from the peeling paint job or that my tire has gone bald (even though I know the horrid risks that occompany this phenomenon). I am happiest when time seems to have stopped, which most likely for me is when I'm in a cafe reading a book. My mother still tries to talk me into wearing a watch, and this Saturday night we will be buying "shelf paper" for my new place to put her mind at ease, because she knows I don't see the need for it.


On the other hand, I loathe being late, and I hate been caught off-guard. If there are places to be seen, there had better be a plan on how this feat is going to be accomplished. I hate it when foods mix on my plate, specifically when it involves jello or juice. My books are all organized by genre, and I hang my clothes by my own system according to how they make me "feel". My biggest pet-peeve is when anything (people or things) are inefficient, and I will leave the house without perfume, but never mascara. I will literally hunt for the details of a song online, so I can label it on iTunes with every piece of information accounted for (yes, even including the Album name and genre). My shoes will always match, no matter how "unconventional" my outfits seem to be.


It has occured to me that perhaps I am slightly insane, but many assure me that I have one exclusive, whacky personality that is all my own.


Instead, I came to the conclusion that I am a product of my parents: one anal--err--obessively organized, and one who could just be content to "let things happen" as life unfolds.


While I am fully aware of the negative "Dr. Jekyl-Mr Hyde" persona, I beg to differ that my state of paradoxical living is what instead allows me to befriend and inhabit environments with people who live beyond and in between these extremes. I can burn incense with the soulful, musical wanderer who could care less about worrying about where life will lead them next. I also appreciate the organized principal who has printed agendas with deadlines and dates and doesn't allow staff meetings to become sessions for off-topic diatribes.


After traveling, talking and interacting with people who span the personality charts, I've realized that the differences we have even in ourselves help to illuminate those qualities in others.


Perhaps if we even looked at our own oxymoronic tendancies, we would understand that we are all more alike than we eve realized.


In the meantime, I'll be "wasting time" reading my latest novel, and after I will return it to its marked place, where it belongs.