What grinds your gears and how do you deal with it?

[Diana]

However, human bodily functions always seem to throw me into some sort of rage. Even things that are uncontrollable. I really first noticed it when I was young, when my brother would have sneezing fits due to allergies...I would get so mad listening to him sneeze I would sometimes yell at him. It's basically any bodily function though, from burping and farting, to blowing one's nose, to stomachs growling, to the sound from scratching an itch...it all irks me for some reason and I can't figure out why.

OMG, I laughed so hard at this. Only because I am the same way, with all the sorts of things you mentioned. My boyfriend always sneezes 4 or 5 times in a row and I struggle to stay unirritated. I am also a little bit like Howard Hughs in that I can't really think about dirt that much.

Have you read Tom Robbins? In his book, Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, his main character couldn't stand to think of bodily functions, or even the internal organs that facilitated them, so he always saw the inside of his body as light. Tom Robbins books are funny and out-of-the-box, but always have a spiritual aspect.

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I just have to tell this story. Some years ago I started to detect a slight unpleasant odor when I would go out in public. It was persistent and I could not discover what it was. I began to say things like, I think I'm actually smelling the stink of humanity, or smelling the unwashed masses, or smelling dark energies, and the like.

It would not always be there, but almost always when I was out and about. For example, one day I was with my nephew in a doctor's office. I smelled the smell. I asked my nephew if he smelled it. He said no. I started looking askance at the elderly gentleman across from us.

The smell persisted whenever I went outside the house. One day I was in my studio cleaning out my purse. I found an old half-eaten burrito in it that I had forgotten about! (It was really wrapped up which is probably why the smell was subtle.) I had been carrying the smell around with me! But I only smelled it when I went out because that's when I carried my purse.

I laughed so hard when I found it, it was such a joke on me. It still makes me laugh at myself.