My Progress So Far

As always, some successes, some... not successes.

At work this month, I'm assigned to cleaning the bathrooms. Not a perfect job for one with contamination OCD. Three months ago, when I put the chore list together, it seemed like a good chance for exposures. And it still is, of course.

In fact, the cleaning part went surprisingly well. I even "contaminated" myself at one point and didn't do anything about it. Now my car is presumably contaminated as well, and I'm fine with it. So hooray!

BUT... after I left the office, I thought, did I leave the sink running? One, I knew I hadn't, and two, if I had, the next person to use the restroom could have just turned it off. I came really close to not checking, and I knew I shouldn't check. But I did. Of course the sink was off. The dumbest part about checking is that I know it doesn't really help, because after I checked, I still wasn't certain it was off as I left the office yet again. But that time I didn't go back and check,thank goodness. That's a vicious cycle.

So there's day one. Room for improvement, but feeling okay with what I did accomplish.

Getting My Thoughts on "Paper"

I keep thinking "oh, I should blog about this." And then I don't. By the time I sit down to do it, I've usually forgotten what I was planning to write about.

I've found that over the last month or so, while my anxiety is still there, I'm feeling so much more energy and motivation to do things I want to do. I've been riding my bike to work and for exercise, doing crafts and a bit of volunteering, and continuing to downsize my clutter.

Travel is way up there on my "terrifying" list, but I've been making lists of places I want to visit. Actually taking a trip will be a big step, of course, but it's really been years since I even wanted to travel much.

So, this winter, I will try to get my thoughts down here, especially as I've been starting to do some scary exposures.