oregon trail

those of you who know me well know that often in life i get stuck. by stuck i mean fixed on particular things... in kindergarten it was egg-salad sandwiches. everyday for months. ask my mom, she can probably tell you better and in more colorful detail. i had egg-salad so many days in a row my teacher and friends made unprompted comments.

other fixations in my childhood included: the movie sound of music, annie (the movie and the special annie dress my grandma peg made for me), organizing books (Bernstein bears, boxcar children, babysitters club), building & decorating homes for my barbies, any disney movie, sucking my thumb (took a barbie doll in elementary school to motivate me to finally kick the habit) etc...

in high school i remember periods of time where i would eat a pickle everyday after school... not sure why, just tasted good. also in high school i had bagels and cream cheese and chocolate chip cookies for lunch for months at a time. maybe my passion for the same thing many times in a row encouraged my passion for swimming, because really in swimming all you are doing is the same thing over and over again - back and forth down the length of the pool. in my adult life tim could probably make a more thorough list but off the top of my head: chai from starbucks (when i worked at starbucks this addiction was only fueled), diet coke, chipotle (the exact same burrito everytime), watching friends (thank you bill and jo jo), chips and salsa, white wine, pepermint patties, pecans (almost got in a fight over that one - nico and allison may remember), bagels with salami/cheeder cheese/mustard... well you get the point.

currently, well you may have already guessed, i am slightly (to be kind to myself) obsessed with playing oregon trail on facebook. i love it. i can't help it. i have begun to memorize tips which help in my game playing - like certain sickness can be healed by simply resting for a day, and buffalo are still the best bang for the buck in the hunting portion. i think my obsession with oregon trail is fueled from a number of sources - the primary one being the nostalgic value, as i remember danielle and i playing on our computer in the days of MS-DOS, where we had to remember the correct code for the program to appear. other sources which fuel my playing time include: more free time i have had in a while, drive to get better at things, and the simple joy of the game :)

so here's a question (my first question posed to you all) - anyone out there like me? what obsessions have captured your attention, even for relatively short periods of time? funny stories much appreciated. and any of you who know me well enough are also welcome to chime in to the list i began. :)

ps. lists about tim also appreciated. it seems we are extremely alike in our tendency towards addiction/obsession/commitment (you chose the adjective). for now i will just call it stuck.