Thursday, January 23, 2014

Palindromes have ruined my life.

I was at my work party a couple nights back and was having a conversation with a friend; I may have been a couple drinks deep when I told her a little known secret. She found it to be very weird and her immediate response was “you need to write a blog post about this”. So, to make my friend happy (yes, I am a people pleaser), here it is.

ThatWhiteGirl - palindromes - AA meeting for the love

My friend later forwarded me a facebook post that her friend posted the following day.

“Does it bother anyone else that the word "symmetry" isn't a palindrome? What a waste of an opportunity."

I had a good chuckle. Anyway, back to the story… My brother is three years older than I am; when I was about six years old, he came home from school and told me he learned about palindromes.

Mom

Dad

Noon

Pop

The list goes on… but my all-time favourite (yes, one that I learned that day and still continues to be my favourite to this day) is racecar. I’m not sure why. Probably because my mind was completely blown. I may or may not have had to write it down to verify the fact. C’mon, I was six, give me a break!

Since that day, I’ve loved palindromes. There was even a time where I knew I loved them, but couldn’t remember what they were called.

ThatWhiteGirl - palindromes - what's that word again

It’s one thing for a six year old to love something like palindromes. It’s another thing to have palindromes completely take over a six year olds’ life. It another thing altogether to have that same control still be present in a 33 year old body.

ThatWhiteGirl - palindromes - I don't know what's wrong with me

Once I learned what palindromes were, I started doing something; something that can really only be classified as OCD. You see, my mom worked mornings and I was in charge of setting an alarm, answering the phone when she called and getting us ready for school (yes, I’m the younger sibling). But for some reason, this new found responsibility manifested in an obscure way.

ThatWhiteGirl - palindromes - I set my alarm clock in palidromes

I still do it to this day and I don’t know why. I started trying to convince myself that I needed to stop this behaviour, so when I passed the palindrome on my alarm clock, I’d stop. Yes, I used to go all the way around just to get the ‘perfect’ setting. But it always ended badly. I wouldn’t sleep well, and once I fell asleep due to pure exhaustion, I would oversleep and I’d be late. It had nothing to do with the fact that I: stayed up too late, drank too much, ate right before bed, was stressed out or the hundred other reasons why I didn’t sleep well.

No, clearly it’s because I didn’t set my alarm clock to a palindrome. I know it’s irrational, so I’ve tried to steer away from it; tried to regain control of my life. After all, two out of three of my current alarms are not set in palindromes. But I realized at my work party, that it still affects my life.

I bought a 50/50 ticket; when the draw was happening, I scanned my tickets to see if I had a palindrome.

ThatWhiteGirl - palindromes - lucky 50-50 tickets

I’m willing to look past whether or not it’s a “true palindrome”. I will accept if the last 3 or 4 digits (the ones that count) are a palindrome. Turns out, I had one and was pretty convinced I’d win the 50/50 because of it.

I didn’t win. Because I never win 50/50 tickets. But…

The winning ticket was a palindrome!!!!

Fuck! So, my irrational rationalization is now justified. I’m pretty much doomed.

10 comments:

  1. That's not that strange. My alarm MUST be set to a time that ends in an 8. Idk why, it just does....

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  2. At least naming your children will have a few conventional options if you decide not to name one 'Racecar'.

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  3. Was it a car or a cat I saw?

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  4. Live not on evil deed, live not on evil.

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  5. Dog, as a devil deified, lived as a god.

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  6. Lol, I love you. Because I much prefer your OCD for palindromes over my dad's OCD for anagrams. He makes-up some pretty scary anagrams sometimes! :o(

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  7. Frickin 50/50! Just when you were starting to debunk your palindrome theories that had to go and rebunk them. WTF?!?!

    This sounds like something that should be on My Strange Addiction, or have some sort of recovering palindrome addicts meeting at the community center.

    p.s. a day or two after my youngest daughter was born I realized her name was a palindrome. I sure hope that's good luck cause she's already cursed enough having me as her dad!

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  8. I love palindromes, maybe not as much as you, maybe I just like them...I need to look closer at my relationship with palindromes. I also onomatopoeia are very fascinating.

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  9. I love palindromes, too. Always have, ever since I learned about them in second grade.

    Madam in Eden, I'm Adam.
    Do geese see God?
    Dammit, I'm mad!

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  10. Mich - you're right - that is more weird! :)

    Gorm - Hannah for a girl, Racecar for a boy. Seems legit.

    Brain - thanks for all the palindrome fodder!!

    Minxy - thanks so much! Also anagrams are hard...

    Chris - I hope there isn't a TV show that applies to me.

    Poke - you really should. I also like onomatopoeia. Which ironically is much harder to spell than it sounds.

    Beer - I was merely three years ahead of you... but I have less of them up my sleeve, apparently. Really love the "Dammit, I'm mad!" one though. Keeper!!

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