The brain is a poorly understood organ

[substitute]

List of things I do that have no point or rhyme or reason or meaning but are compulsive and necessary:

• Say “you are the cat!” to the cat, often
  
• Count while peeing as if the number when I finish is significant
  
• Rest one hand on the gearshift while driving although I have not driven stick for many years
  
• Look at pretty girls
  
• Continue through a story doggedly even when I realize everyone has heard it
  
• Shake a bottle of pills slightly before taking one
  
• Spin the vinyl backwards when putting a vinyl record on a turntable
  
• Get up every day and live my life in the absence of evidence that it’s meaningful
  
• Take a toothpick from the restaurant front counter
  
• Try to repair damaged friendships
  
• Bark at dogs
  

Comments

[mr-flippant.livejournal.com]

I sometimes count. The largest number I have reached thus far: 82. For some reason I also:

• Replace the cap on any bottled beverage I am drinking after every sip.

• Shake bottled water periodically as if to mix it better

• Chew two pieces of gum at one time. One on each side of my mouth.

[brianenigma.livejournal.com]

I do the cap thing, too--but it is more of a trained response. The computer lab in college was full of shiny new X Windows terminals, and the phrase "you break it, you bought it" was used there all the time. You were allowed to eat and drink in the lab, but they kept tabs on who spilled their coke in the keyboards. It just ended up being easier and less worrisome to cap the bottle after every drink.