In no particular.

I forget more easily than I forgive.  If I remember, it's because it hurts.  If I've forgotten, it wasn't important. Enough.  To him or her.  Pain is an equal opportunist.

I’m methodical to a fault.  I often see the end result and map it out as I go along without having a clue to the rhyme and reason of how I am going to get there.  But I know my destination and that there is a method to my madness that will always work out in the end.  Even if it’s at my own expense.  This makes people crazy. 

I like that.

Ambient noise disturbs me.  A lot.  I live for peace and quiet and silence in my living and work environment.  The wind or the sound of someone breathing can make my skin crawl.  Someone whistling in a grocery store (or anywhere else for that matter) will make me consider Hari-Kari.  My next-door neighbors should have learned by now that my stereo system can out trump theirs by decibels. 

Please don’t make me prove it again. 

I have an Asperger’s sense of taste and smell and sound, too.  (Read above).  If you gave me a 200-gallon vat of soup with 1/9 of an ounce of goat cheese in it, I would discern the goat cheese.  And gag.  I despise goat cheese.

I’m extremely compartmentalized and very private.  The thought of being owned (even to the extent of someone knowing where I am and what I’m doing every minute of the day) makes my skin crawl.  I like my freedom.  I need my freedom.  I may say that I’ll be out or away just to buy myself some more alone time. 

I own stock in it.

Like Joan H., bad hygiene is a huge turnoff for me.  I look at teeth, nails and grooming.  Very closely.  And habits.  If I catch it once and it makes my hair stand on end, I look for it again.  I anticipate it.  If I see it (or worse, smell it) it becomes a deal breaker (in terms of a relationship). 

I get my teeth cleaned four times a year and don’t trust people who don’t floss.  Or drink coffee.

I will not drink Starbucks unless it is the only choice. 

I feel the experience of life deeply and value justice more than just about everything else.  I swallow much and spew little.  I think that’s why I am an artist and writer.  Both creative outlets serve as conduits to express what I’m feeling without necessitating confrontation.  I like peace.  My own, and everyone else’s. But not at someone else’s judicial expense.  Even my lawyer friends are scared of me when I get outraged. 

And they should be.

I’m a germaphobe.  Not quite as bad as Jerry Seinfeld or the guy who hosts the game show with the briefcases full of money (what’s his name again?), but I’m pretty anal retentive.  I can identify the next person who will give me a cold as the germs enter my airspace.

I remember almost everything.  This is not always good. 

Especially for the person who gives me my next cold.

I do not trust easily but am easily taken for a fool and willing to go out on a limb when and where others are not. I think of myself as compassionate and want to believe what people tell me.  Until I find out otherwise. 

I’ve learned the hard way.

I’m still learning.

I will likely be a student forever. 

I’m a fool for romance and love.  I have discovered with time, that these two things are generally not mutually exclusive.  That they are often not found in the same room has been disappointing. 

Thank God I can still check in somewhere else.

I wipe down everything in a hotel. Including my own past.

I’m obsessed with stray hair.  Especially if it is on my body and in particular, on my face.  Yikes!  I am on very good terms with my tweezers.

I rarely if ever, watch TV.

I conduct my life and live it by a set of rules that can be maddening for others.  They conform to few “normal” standards. In certain situations, the rules may change so that I can achieve a desired outcome for the benefit of somebody else, but not for myself. 

Nobody screws someone I care about. 

If only I could apply that strength and fortitude internally, I would learn to take better care of me.  Maybe, so would everyone else.

But I doubt it.  

I trust few people.

I'm as flawed as they come.