[fa-stid-ee-uhs]
adjective
1. excessively particular, critical, or demanding; hard to please: a fastidious eater.
2. requiring or characterized by excessive care or delicacy; painstaking.
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I called someone fastidious. They seemed to believe it was an insult. On the contrary, I respect the attention to detail and particularity that goes along with the appellation. To my mind, a fastidious person is committed to enjoying the singular pleasure of  the properly tended with everything in its right place.
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I was raised by a neat freak who then developed a fondness for methamphetamine. It wasn’t unusual to be made to scour the kitchen twice, in the middle of the night if necessary, to make sure it was clean enough. I suppose this might have instilled in me the powerful preference for an immaculate house. My own desire to impose this brand of order can be short-circuited by wandering attention or other demands, but when I have chaos surrounding me, my stress level climbs tremendously. Hodie, for her part, has claimed I have two speeds; slob and neat freak. Though she prefers the results of neat freak, slob doesn’t make her clean the sink grout with a toothbrush.
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Nothing can quite compare to the satisfaction of leaving the bathroom floor freshly scrubbed (on hands-and-knees; the only way to get any floor properly clean) and stinking of bleach. The kitchen counters and stainless steel gleaming. Or the view of the inside of my closet; reveling in the orderly piles of sweaters in cascading shades; the march of hangers by sleeve length and degree of formality. Boots and shoes on their shelves, bags and hats hanging on hooks to their best display.Â
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I try not to allow my powerful preference for a well-regulated environment to interfere with my quality of life in other ways. When this compulsion begins to interfere with the ability to relax, or to enjoy the company of other people lest they spoil the system with their pesky human presence and unpredictability, we stray into territory I respect less; being hidebound to such an extent is as bad as unbridled chaos, in its way.
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