"I plan every possible situation and worry about its every possible permutation," says Finkelstein, who began compiling a comprehensive list of things she needed to bring to college last April.

"I brought up paper clips, contact lens solution, paper [and] soap for years to come," she says.

Much of Finkelstein's 'anal'yzing centers on the academic aspects of her life.

"I don't respond to my gut feeling. I analyze the situation," she says.

"If I have work to do for a given day, I'll schedule the day. If I get into it, I'll schedule the week," says Finkelstein. "If I have a lot of work to do and I'm tired, I wonder if I should go to bed, stay up, or go to bed for two hours. I spend a good amount of time analyzing the costs and benefits of the situation."

"Everything she does has to be planned. When we go shopping, she always knows exactly what she's shopping for--pants in a neutral pattern...a low cut spandex top for going out," says Ellie Grossman '95, who has been a friend of Finkelstein's since first grade.

"But she laughs at herself because she knows she's anal," Grossman adds.

And what does Finkelstein think about non-anal types?

"I think...more analness results in more intensity," she says. "If you're more laid back, you may have a healthier life, but you're not thinking about things a lot."

"Laid back people stress too, but the stress they feel is at the last minute on the night before a paper's due. I'd rather plan my stress," Finkelstein says. "If I pull an all-nighter, it tends to be a week before it's due."

"I don't plan to stop making lists and charts. It's the way I function," she adds.

Bedtime Rituals

Like Finkelstein, Megan K. Fritschel '94 doesn't mind being labelled anal retentive.

"It doesn't bother me. It means I get my work done. I don't think of it as a derogatory term," says Fritschel, though she prefers to describe her set pattern of pre-bedtime activities as "a habitual ritual."

Fritschel, a cross country runner, says she faithfully performs the same routine--"sit ups, toe lifts, contacts out, brush and floss, go-to bed-early-because-I-have-to-go-to breakfast-or-my-day-isn't-complete-without-it"--every night.