I try to be a good person and to help my fellow planet-dwellers when I can. I’ve just read Ann Nichols’ latest post, where she asks us to write about our fatal flaws, to keep her occupied during a difficult time. I just answered a (very old) OC yesterday, but far be it from me to not be altruistic (and a bit self-absorbed…). So, here goes – my fatal flaws, for Ann:
I guess I’d group these into two categories, the really serious ones that, to quote the OC description, “[prevent me] from attaining the pinnacle of human perfection”, and the ones that are probably okay as long as I don’t get too caught up in them.
….One of my fatal flaws is that I have a tendency to over-explain things….
My Serious Fatal Flaws:
- I’m afraid nothing will last and so I often behave accordingly.
- There’s pretty much no one I completely trust.
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome
- A horrible work ethic, except when it comes to writing, but I’m afraid of getting a job in journalism/anything writing-related for fear that I’ll stop loving writing, since…
- … I have issues with authority and obligation. If you are my boss or hold anything over me in any way, no matter how nice you are I’ll come to see you as the enemy.
- Clumsiness.
- When people are rude or even cruel to me, I tend to be so shocked that I don’t say or do anything at first.
- I have a very complicated relationship with food, mitigated by IBS and a (debatable) sugar addiction.
- I have a hard time being hospitable towards most people, barring a select few. I’m gracious to everyone, and genuinely want people to be safely and comfortably housed, but I need my personal space.
- There are few things I can truly accept committing to. This impedes me from taking up activities, joining clubs, etc.
- I have no idea if the relationship I’m in, is the one for me.
- I'm kind of an enabler.
- I often feel more sympathy for animals than for people. I think it’s a mix of growing up in a laissez-faire capitalist society, and the fact that animals are really completely helpless. I guess babies are, too. I don’t know.
- According to my therapist, Generalized Anxiety Disorder is an inherent part of who I am.
- I can have a wonderful, profound talk with just about anyone, except my father.
- The few times I was behind a wheel, I nearly ran over an old lady, drove on the wrong side of the road, realized I didn’t know how breaks worked, and ripped off part of the fender of a BMW. I don’t know how to drive and don’t want to learn.
My Not-So-Serious-As-Long-As-I-Don’t-Get-Carried-Away Fatal Flaws:
- I love making lists of things about myself, and reading lists of things about others.
- I am more or less completely uninterested in politics or current events unless: 1. they involve an issue that is important to me and/or 2. I can do something to fix the problem.
- Instead of sites run by respectable newspapers and such, my daily online reading (besides OS and emails) consists of Dlisted and Cracked.com.
- I don’t know how to spell “recommend,” and avoid using it, even though it’s a useful word.
- My hair is often frizzy.
- Lately, I’ve been dangerously mixing different plaids.
- I am a rabid fan of: America’s Next Top Model, Tough Love (this show actually made me start going to therapy again), and Jersey Shore
- I once invented a little daily regimen I called “the six cookie diet”. This was to cut back on my cookie consumption.
- I can’t cook French food…and, worse, I don’t really want to, since I prefer Italian meals!
- I once cried at an episode of Felicity. She adopted a dog. Sadness ensued. My roommates at the time came home and found me sobbing in a fetal position. The shame has lingered like a bad smell for years.
- Many of the women on my mom’s side of the family can see or have been contacted by ghosts, but I’ve been ghost-snubbed all my life.
- If I get three hours of sleep or less, I will burst into tears at just about anything.
- I lack the gumption and everyday life experience to write a good chick lit novel.
- I panic when I don’t have what I think is the perfect outfit for a particular occasion.
- My math skills are at 5th grade level, and my chemistry and physics knowledge is roughly equivalent to that of a nobleman in the Middle Ages.
- Most of my knowledge of life is based on books and movies.
Well, I hope that distracted you for a while, Ann. Now I’m going to contemplate jumping out my window. No worries, I won’t actually do it: I wouldn’t want to traumatize my cat. Plus, there’s an unfinished bag of M&M’s in the kitchen.
Thanks for this OC idea and good luck to you and your mom and the rest of your family today.
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froggy
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Comments
Oy Vey.. break out the M and M's
rated with hugs
The ol' 'that's your flaw' syndrome.
kate - I have no problem with these flaws...er...I have no problem talking about these flaws. I hope writing them down can even in some way comfort others. I find you pretty darn fascinating, too. Here's hoping you'll make it to Paris one day!
Matt - It comforts me to know an eloquent, intelligent man such as yourself could share some of my flaws...though I'm sorry you do. At least you don't have to worry about the chick lit thing, though.
"Most of my knowledge of life is based on books and movies." Me, too. It's got to be at least 80%.
Enjoyed your lists :-)
heidibeth – I’m glad you got my point about that : - ) And thanks – I felt bad doing two lists back to back and honestly did this one to entertain Ann, not completely out of being self-absorbed.
Cranky – I’m an excellent speller, too, but there’s that stupid “recommend” that I just can’t get straight! My computer auto-corrects it but if I have to tell a student how to spell it, I panic! Thanks for the vote of confidence…and no, IBS is probably the farthest thing from charm there is…..
God, I have such food issues myself.
Starve myself all day, and gorge at night,
then fall asleep.
Wake up the next day to starve myself
again, and,
high on caffeine, go out and
please everybody who
enters my well protected space.
I know i contain wisdom.
I take in the food that is offered me,
I take it in whole and without question,
and sometimes without taste
(for i often cannot taste)
and then
I cannot excrete it properly....
Ouch.
twice.
alysa,
there is not a damn thing wrong with you.
that is the problem,
for you.
i mean: there is not a "you" anyway....
there is only a continuing process of life, seeking bliss
or substitutes....
it's the substitutes that upset our tummy
Bellwether - I'm so glad I'm not alone about ANTM! I like to watch it while I treadmill - not with the idea that I will ever approach those girls' weight (and that's for the better, 'cause a lot of them are way too skinny for me) but because it's so snappy and undemanding - the rhythm makes it perfect to just walk along to!
First, please continue to mix plaids with wild abandon. I can just tell you know what you are doing fashion wise.
GAD has been such a part of my life that I barely know who I am without it. But I am figuring it out and you will too.
I may not actually panic if I don't have the right outfit for the right occasion, but when I *do* have it, I am completely confident.
Yes, hygiene, hair, etc. I think we agreed on this before.
I think you are completely lovable and adorable. ~r
while looking within...
i do not trust what is
there ...i trust what
others say, and yet
no matter how
profound or
inspiring it
is,
I edit. I think: how much better you could have said it...
so i try to say it better.
i rarely succeed in catching such lightning in a bottle.
good way to spend yr life, though...trying..
food? when i am hungry, dammit,
not when i am told
As to the IBS and GAD, I recommend (ha) that you think of yourself as more than your initials.
As to politics, perhaps if political discourse were presented as lists, you'd be interested?
As to clumsiness, that is not a serious flaw. (I hope.)
As to Italian food over French, that is not a flaw but good taste.
As to mixing plaids, why dangerous? Does it produce noxious fumes?
As to your last two, I share them.
James – I’m sorry (though not surprised) that it’s hard for you to take praise. I don’t know if it’s good to spend our life trying, though I guess it’s a reason to get up in the morning, a way to hope that things will get better. I do hope you’ll be able to see the brilliant light inside you one day.
Rita – Thank you, but if you lived with me, I don’t think all these flaws would be that endearing after a while : - ) I loved your list, too – such an adorable cat!
Eva – Toldja! I don’t know how many of our flaws are our own fault. It’s an interesting idea: when something is so programmed into your nature, did you choose it, or is it just some inherent part of you? Thanks for giving me something to ponder…
Susan – How cool that we have so much in common (though you’re lucky enough to see and communicate with spirits). I chose to include IBS because in my case, it affects my personality and lifestyle choices, not just my physical well-being. This part of your comment has me thinking the same way as I did in my response to Eva – how much of a flaw is choice or something like that, and how much is due to an inherent condition of sorts?
Pilgrim – Glad you enjoyed this. I do definitely think of myself as more than GAD or IBS or any other letters. But they’re flaws and a part of me all the same, alas…. Your political solution is interesting and should logically work. Maybe it would be better if things were broken down…I don’t know. The closest I’ve come to being consistently interested in politics or the news is when I could watch “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” nightly. At least I could laugh. Maybe humor is the key. My clumsiness may be a fatal flaw one day, if I don’t watch out! : - ) I’m glad you agree about the Italian over French cooking…I think that’s more a flaw from my French boyfriend’s perspective. Mixing plaids is dangerous in that it can damage the eyes of those who appreciate more balanced, well-put-together ensembles. Glad we share the last two “flaws”.
However, I never mix plaids. That's just wrong.
And I can drive good. (No choice in the matter.)
Actually, there's lots of differences, but similarities too, like the hospitality one (does that mean I should forget that dream I had about camping out in your living-room?), the authority/boss one .... as an aside, the authority'/boss thing makes it difficult for me to BE the boss of any enterprise, and, since people (whom you are wise to not ever completely trust) smell weakness, I get torn to shreds.
I used to have GAD, but grew out of it eventually. Now if anything I suffer from don't-give-a-shit. Both conditions are fraught for social interactions...
You prefer Italian food to all that wonderful French food in the midst of which you live? But it's all pasta, who-cares.
I think lists are stupid. And I've never had frizzy hair in my life, well, except in my very youth when I got a permanent once. My hair may look like regular hair, but it is really made of steel and refuses to make any kind of bend. For a brief time, my kind of hair was fashionable.
Great line - "my chemistry and physics knowledge is roughly equivalent to that of a nobleman in the Middle Ages." I actually like reading about that stuff, esp. modern physics. Not that I retain any of it, but it makes my head feel funny. (Actually, I once knew a middling-famous theoretical physicist/Harvard professor - we were both s-f fans, otherwise our paths would never have crossed - who used to say that about modern physics too ... and he CONTRIBUTED to the crazy current theories.)
Okay, I guess we're not twins after all.
But in reading these responses to Ann's open call, it's clear that under all our varying surfaces, we're all gooshy messes, and pretty similar gooshy messes at that. Sort of like the seething molten heart of the earth, which you'd never guess from its crusty exterior. Unless you visited Yellowstone, and contemplated what could happen if that channel to the surface actually blew...
Accommodation, as in "get outta my living-room even in your dreams".
P.S. - Paris trip was on, off, on, currently off...
I pictured her to look a little like you and you both have many of the same problems..sort of.
On another note, I don’t hate you for dreaming of sleeping in my living room…and I’m not worried because it’s a construction site for now and no one could sleep there even if they wanted to :-p I hope the Paris trip will work out. I really, really hope! If it does, I propose we eat at my favorite Italian restaurant here and then get something awesome and French for dessert!
O’Really – Now that you mention it, I think I really did overestimate myself there….
Algis – Your comment made me crack up…and get a bit worried. Are you talking about the main girl, with the mohawk and tattoos and goodness knows what? I’m not really into crime novels so I haven’t read the book, but I know a bit about it because it’s very popular here. I’m flattered that someone would picture me as a hardcore crazy heroine, me who’s planning a trip to Amsterdam only to visit museums and the Anne Frank House… I will be thinking of your comment all day.
diary – Thank you very much! I really am code red with the plaids..it’s not my fault, I just found this cute bag that happens to be plaid and so does my warmest winter coat…and this cute skirt I bought…and…. Well, everything’s plaid. And yes, you have probably seen someone like me at your therapist’s…but not in a Swedish crime novel (see Algis’ comment).
Tho Sicily seems to have totally awesome pastries...
My friend I travelled with is Italian and thinks that's the best cuisine...but I didn't hear a peep about that all the time we were in France!