She has lived an obsessive-compulsive life
Laura Rupp makes sure items in her pantry are displayed just so.
“I’m obsessive-compulsive. Everything has to be just so. It’s weird. I go crazy when the house is not perfectly cleaned and in place. Even with the refrigerator. I’ll put something in there and then think, I don’t really like how I put that. After I close the door and walk away, I’ll go right back and move it. I try so hard to fight the feeling, but then I’ll do it anyway.
“I’ve been like this ever since I was little. My mom would buy me a doll or a toy or a game, and after I was done playing all the cards had to be just so and rubber-banded and all the pieces had to be put back in the box. My dolls always had to be pristine. They had to look perfect.
“Growing up, I always had to have things exactly the way I wanted them. I wouldn’t even let my mom wash my clothes. Like my bed in there now, I’ll spend 20 minutes making that damn thing. Perfect nurse’s corners. Make sure there’s not a wrinkle.
“It’s ridiculous. It takes up a lot of time. But I’m not near as bad as I used to be. Actually, being a nurse cured some of it because it’s so grueling and so hard to be in control of everything going on around you. You can’t have everything be perfect all of the time in that kind of environment.
“I used to watch that show, ‘Monk,’ where the detective has OCD. I remember one episode where he had a bomb, and it was kind of egg-shaped. It was going to explode, so he opens up the refrigerator and puts it into a carton of eggs. He closes the refrigerator and starts walking away, but then he walks back, opens it up and straightens the bomb because it was leaning. That’s me. I’m kind of like Monk, I guess. I could always solve the crimes, too. First show I ever saw, I solved it.”
— Laura Rupp
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