A Little Hotel OCD
Thank you for reading,
I took this week off of work, so I didn’t lose my vacation time. Other than doing stuff around the house, I went down to Tombstone and Bisbee Arizona for two days. To my surprise it was busier than I expected since I went on Wednesday and Thursday in October. It was nice to go see something different, however Tombstone seems very commercial. Bisbee is an old mining town similar to Jerome, which I’ve been to. They are nice to go to. I took a tour of the Copper Queen Mine, which was fun and interesting to do. I had a nice time, except for when my OCD came up.
My OCD came up in the hotel I stayed at. The Inn At Castle Rock was built in 1895. It is a nice hotel with nice staff, nevertheless it is over a hundred years old. It has been kept up as well as it could be. I believe most of the wood is original. The rooms don’t have TVs or refrigerators. The hotel does have a TV room to watch TV and a communal refrigerator. It does have modern day bathroom stuff like sink, toilet, and shower. The shower is maybe four feet by four feet. It has knobs to adjust the hot and cold, they don’t work really well. To turn on the shower you have to turn on and off the shut off valve above the shower head. Being so small there is no place the water doesn’t hit you, so as soon as you try to put soap on the wash cloth the water washes it away. It was definitely a challenge. What made it more of a challenge was as soon as I got in there I noticed hairs from someone else on the shower wall. I was already in the shower, so I took my time to wash off without touching any of the walls, which was easier said than done. My OCD jumped right in to if they didn’t clean the shower very well, then what else didn’t they clean. My eyes started to look around the minute I got out of the shower. I told myself to move on, and don’t listen to your OCD. I got my OCD to calm down, still the rest of the time I had to keep my OCD in check since it would ask me a question every so often, like did they change the sheets?
All in all, I had a nice time even at the hotel. I wish I would have remembered about Kartchner Caverns, I would have loved to go to them. Kartchner Caverns are underground with two rooms to go into. Each room is a separate tour. I’ve read they are beautiful to see. I will put them on my to do list for the next time I go down that direction.
I’ve had issues with dying the last couple of days that brought up my God fearing issues. I believe what Rachel told me before with what I’m watching, reading, etc. can have an influence on my OCD. The dying issues are coming up strong the last couple of days for the reasons of the stuff I’ve watched along with the few things that I have read that have dying in them in some ways. I told you last week that I’ve been doing good with my God issues, so this coming up was a surprise to me. I haven’t changed anything, so that is why I’m thinking it is what I’ve watched and read. I’m still praying short prayers. Do I have to stop watching and reading stuff all together? No, I need to learn how to control this just like any other OCD.
My aunt came into town on Friday for the weekend. She stops coming when it gets hot, so she hasn’t been here since April or May. It is nice to see her, however it isn’t easy living or dealing with someone again when you’ve been living by yourself for so long. Yes, I definitely have to watch myself and OCD with her. I won’t get into details about how she does stuff that bothers me. I do have to not do compulsions like cleaning everything she touches for example. This makes me realize that if I ever get a girlfriend or someone serious again, I’m going to have to really be able to do some give and take. I also have never had to deal with telling anyone about my OCD that I’ve been serious with. I will cross that bridge when I come to it.
This morning I put my bowl in the dishwasher to find a bowl missing. My aunt eats ice cream every night, which she buys at the store as soon as she gets here. Instead of using a clean bowl out of the cupboard, she takes a dirt bowl from the dishwasher. I expect she does this because she doesn’t want to change her ice cream bowl she has used coming down here all the time. Well, I don’t like this. She messes me up for I use those bowls because they have lids, so I can prepare my breakfast all week on Sunday. It took me a while to find the bowl since she put it in the corner of the counter, so she can reuse the bowl while she is here. She does this with coffee cups too. Yes, she cleans them out. The point is, this totally messes me up next week. I have to learn to go with the flow.
Facing it, always facing it, that’s the way to get through it. - Joseph Conrad
Here are some websites to find help with your OCD.
In Arizona
https://ocdandptsdtherapy.com/
United States & Global
Please remember that I am not a therapist, but a person who has OCD, cares about others, and wants to help any way I can. I am not giving advice. I am just telling my own experiences, and praying my experiences help someone. If you need help please go get the help you need.
Until next time,
Tracy T. Agnelli
