One of the first concerns we ever had about Sawyer was what we humorously referred to as his OCD tendencies - lining things up, organizing things by patterns or colors, or his desire to have things done a certain way. Let's just say he has always liked things his way. And while he can be convinced these days to venture outside those rigid lines and patterns, his need for order is still very much there.
Clearly the kid gets it naturally. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am ridiculously organized. Back in the days when I actually worked outside the home, my office was spotless and everything was in its place. There, my co-workers would humorously refer to my OCD tendencies. So it turns out that Sawyer gets some of those things from his mother, not just his autism.
Case in point, the recent move from my previous web address to this one. It moved only a couple of days ago, and yet every single post has been edited to remove any reference to our last name, to the previous address or to the previous photo site address. With over 1,000 posts, that's a lot of editing. And I can't tell you how many times I wrote the phrase "see more photos here" and linked back to the photo site.
And in looking at the new photo site, with a mere 350 odd photos compared to the 6,000 plus that inhabited the old one, my OCD tendencies moved to another level. I did not want to move all 6,000 photos manually to the new site, where I would have to re-label and re-categorize and essentially re-do everything. I really, really did not want to. It was going to take forever. I would never be able to remember every moment enough to put a cute and witty caption underneath. It was too much.
But it bothered me that the history was gone. Because I think it's something the boys might enjoy being able to look back on someday. Instead of starting from the beginning, the photos were starting in the middle.
So what is an OCD girl to do. She starts systematically reloading all of those photos. Not the exact ones from the old site, but simply starting at the beginning of our digital collection and working my way forward (a few months or years at a time), pulling the best and most memorable moments.
Sound fun? It actually wasn't too bad. It's kind of fun to go back and look through those old photos that I haven't had occasion to visit in a while. Baby Connor. Newborn twins in their constantly matching outfits. Buster as a tiny puppy, even. So it's been a fun trip down memory lane, even if it is a little bit of work along the way.
But then a problem immediately occurs to me. The photos are out of order in the photostream. Because I'm constantly uploading current photos in between batches of the old ones. And the lack of order is driving me crazy! This OCD girl has not only been uploading batches of pictures (about a 100 or so at a time), but I have been going into each individual photo and changing the posting date and time. So that the photos WILL be in chronological order.
Sigh, it's going to be a long process. And until it's done, I'd recommend bookmarking this page. It will show you each set (which I break down by months in the year) instead of the photostream. Because there are going to be times when the photostream is out of order, at least until I take the time to edit each individual photo into its rightful place.
Yes, my son comes by the OCD stuff quite naturally. He gets that from me.
