Those of you who have read enough of my stuff know by now that I’m a little weird.  And if you haven’t, well, I am – so now you’re all caught up.

I have mentioned before that I may or may not have OCD and that this possible disorder manifests itself in many, many ways.  Well, I just remembered one and so I thought, “Hell!  Might as well share!”  So I had to or I wouldn’t be able to use the bathroom.

Don't look at me like that - it was the first one that came up! Well, not really. I just liked the color.

Imagine, if you will, walking, driving, transporting yourself around any of a number of public places.  It is an eventuality that you will run into other people – strangers – before you head back home to eat your dinner alone.

Think about it.  When you’re criss-crossing through that crowd of people, do you ever look people right in the eyes?  I’ve found that it’s in the nature of most people to avoid this, for one reason or another – myself included.  And so one day a couple years ago, I concluded most unscientifically that my inability to maintain eye contact with strangers – whether it’s at the mall or at a stoplight – was a weakness I had to overcome.

I think you can see where this is going.

I started training myself to maintain eye contact with strangers all the time.  And I trained myself to make sure I would never break eye contact until the other party looked away.

Maybe that sounds funny – otherwise, I wouldn’t be writing about it, now would I? – but it was actually a very annoying compulsion to have.  See, even if the other person was a big, burly man who seemed to have a bad temper, I’d make myself do this game, this game of Staring Chicken, which, conveniently enough, is part of this article’s title.

One time, I was shopping at Target and did it to this man going the other direction, pushing his cart.  Looked ordinary enough, but when I didn’t break, I could’ve sworn he bit his lip before looking away.  It was incredibly awkward and I think I managed to swear this off for a couple weeks.

I did this everywhere I went.  It is an honest-to-God miracle that I haven’t been beat up.  Or flirted with.  But that one isn’t really so much a miracle as it is a fact of my life.  But anyway:

No, my batting average isn’t 100%.  After all this time, there are still times when I can’t keep eye contact, probably because that societal sense of propriety becomes too much to ignore.  Or because I knew there was no way I was gonna survive that man’s punch.  But I still keep it up to this day.  Again, crippling but perhaps – funny?  I don’t know ’cause if it isn’t, then it’s just depressing.

I promise I’ll beat any of you at Staring Chicken though.  Though you probably won’t wanna talk to me after.

Because I’m a freak.