Guest Blog with Matt Blackstone!

mood: jittery
pandora/ipod: "time bomb" by rancid

My friend and fellow Bookanista Matt Blackstone has an amazing and ground-breaking book that hit shelves yesterday: A SCARY SCENE IN A SCARY MOVIE. Here's the Goodreads blurb:

Rene, an obsessive-compulsive fourteen year old, smells his hands and wears a Batman cape when he’s nervous. If he picks up a face-down coin, moves a muscle when the time adds up to thirteen (7:42 is bad luck because 7 + 4 + 2 = 13), or washes his body parts in the wrong order, Rene or someone close to him will break a bone, contract a deadly virus, and/or die a slow and painful death like someone in a scary scene in scary movie. Rene’s new and only friend tutors him in the art of playing it cool, but that’s not as easy as Gio makes it sound.

There's a lot that awesome about this book, and for me, a personal understanding of Rene and empathy for Gio. I have first hand experience dealing with a loved one who suffers from sometimes debilitating OCD, so I've asked Matt to take over my blog today, and talk a little bit about the condition that inspired his book.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quirks, “things,” obsessions by Matt Blackstone

OCD is a frightening condition, characterized by obsessive routines (compulsions) and thoughts, that affects roughly 5 million Americans at some point in their lifetime.

It’s distracting. It’s real. It’s serious. And very scary, especially for teenagers, for it’s in those teenage years that the symptoms of OCD first appear.

But what’s universal about OCD is that we all have our quirks, our “things,” our obsessions that we cling to for comfort. Unfortunately, very few people talk about them, so people with the actual disorder panic even more, which is scary for anyone but especially for teens, for whom identity is so critical and confusing and fragile.

I’d love to hear about your own quirks, your “things,” your obsessions that drive you (and your loved ones?) bananas. But it’s only right that I go first:

I’m an avid sports fan. Born in a suburb near Philadelphia, I’m hopelessly in love the Phillies, Eagles, Flyers, and Sixers. I have a long and sordid history of bizarre behavior when it comes to rooting for my team on TV. If my team falls behind, I change seats on the couch. Or change my snack from tortilla chips to pretzels. Or switch from water to juice. Or change t-shirts. Or lay down on the floor, as long as there’s a rug there (gotta draw the line somewhere).

If my team is ahead, I like to stick to what’s working: the certain snack, the winning beverage, the lucky seat. I avoid boastful phrases like “we got this,” “it’s over,” for fear that the tide will shift. Not until the game is over–really over, after the final buzzer/bell/pitch/whistle/horn–will I rejoice.

Luckily for me (and my wife), I’ve gotten better. The years have mellowed out my sports craze. But every now and then, usually in the playoffs, when the game gets tight, I play the mental game: the seat, the chips, the t-shirt . . . it all becomes a factor. If only the Phillies would appreciate all the work that goes into their playoff victories!!!

Outside of the sports world, I’m a huge fan of blue Precise V7 pens, I usually park in the same spot at school, and I’m a sucker for the same breakfast: an “everything” bagel with butter. If I had a particularly good writing day, I like to eat the same snack I had the day before. Except when I run out of that snack. I may be superstitious, but I'm also lazy -- a lucky snack definitely isn't worth leaving the house for.

I "coach" myself. Heavens no do I talk to myself out loud, but "coach" . . . certainly. I'm known for the following phrases: "C'mon Matty," "what are you doing?" "where was I?" "oi, yoi, oi."

Aside from the aforementioned "coaching," I need silence. My wife's sewing machine drives me bananas. She makes beautiful stuff, absolutely stunning, but it sounds like this: "ERDRADRETICKCHUCKACHUCKRAHERAHERADUGTICK." Those aren't random letters. That's the actual sound.

I sigh. Loudly. I'm a loud sigher. Combine that with my penchant for saying "oi, yoi, oi," you can understand why I'm often mistaken for a 75 year old shuffleboard champion in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The good news–and what separates these idiosyncrasies (or, yes, compulsive tendencies) from the disorder–is that my life will go on if I can’t find my favorite pen or a friend won’t get up from their seat or the bagel store is closed, and if someone takes my parking spot, I don’t hike up the stairs to hunt down the driver and demand that he immediately move his car or else I’ll crack him with a knuckle sandwich.

But some people do. They don’t use the term “knuckle sandwich” because it’s old and corny and sounds like something only my grandpa would say, but they do stress out and panic if things aren’t just so. And they do this every waking second of the day.

I’m running a Twitter contest from Monday July 4 to Friday July 8 (to win 1 of 10 signed hardcover copies of A SCARY SCENE IN A SCARY MOVIE) that encourages people to share their quirks and thus lessen the stigma (and fear) that OCD sufferers feel on a daily basis.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

See why I like Matt? I was lucky enough to meet him when I was in New York for BEA and he's a keeper of a friend, let me tell you. :)

As for quirks that borderline on OCD, I thought I'd share one or two of my own. Like Matt, I'm a rabid sports fan, and my #1 team of choice are the San Francisco Giants. I've been a fan since I was five when my mom and uncle split season tickets. Mom and I went to 40ish games a year, every year til I hit high school. We sat through 100 loss seasons and World Series games, with an All Star game thrown in for good measure.

So until last year, my beloved Giants had never won the big one, the World Series. I was so freaking nervous during the 2010 World Series, that I barely watched half the games. If the Giants were doing badly, I'd turn off the TV, convinced that me watching them live was bad luck.

Of course, the fact that they finally won did nothing to alleviate my OCD on the matter. :)

Anyway, I highly, highly recommend you check out A SCARY SCENE IN A SCARY MOVIE, and hit up Matt's Twitter Giveaway. You'll thank me.