Back when I was in college, I took a short-story writing class as an elective. Don't remember much about it except for the fact that we had to buy a book on short stories that largely consisted of lists of things that could be included. One of those was "Unconscious Habits", and it had things like nose-picking, cracking knuckles, adjusting glasses or clothing, etc. So I thought it might be useful (and possibly fun) to share our own little tics. For example, I find it almost impossible to get out of the shower without toweling off my head. Even if I've deliberately kept my head dry. Even if I've been wearing sandals all day and just rinsed the dust off of my feet. Also, although my arms and hands are moderately hairy, I have no hair on the distal middle phalanges of my index fingers from years of undoing the laces on combat boots by looping them over my fingers and pulling. The follicles just got sanded off at some point. Your turn.
I hold my breath when someone walks by me because I don't like breathing the wind generated by their passing.
Huh...let me see... I do crack my knuckles actually. Also many other joints, I pop my toes, elbows, wrists, knees, ankles, hips, back, and neck. Sometimes even my leg and shoulder joints. Quick tip, kids, don't ever lift things that are too heavy even if you can...if it weighs as much as you do almost, probably not a good idea. You'll start popping things like me. Shhhh....Sometimes I do pick my nose... I also subconsciously frown and not realize it, and it's created frown wrinkles in my forehead. Some people think I'm upset too, when I'm really not. Oddly enough, I also have smile wrinkles, and the combination looks a bit strange. Oh, and does a "lazy" eye count? it's not technically a tic, it's something I just struggle with controlling.
I like sleeping bags and camping mats more than I like beds. I have completely memorized the lyrics to Frozen's "Let it Go" ... in Japanese. Despite my not actually speaking the language. My schedule for doing the laundry is "when the dryer's empty."
I drink beer in the shower (at night). I love drinking beer in the shower. The first night I spent at my future wife's house I drank a beer in the shower. Some years later she said, "I should have known when you drank that beer in the shower the night we hooked up." I always throw salt over my left shoulder when I spill it, which happens often when you're a restaurant guy. I have an irrational aversion to nutcrackers (smug little motherfuckers) and will not sit where they can see me. If I'm at someone else's house I will turn the nutcracker so it is looking elsewhere. This has resulted in more than one Larry David moment in my life. And one memorable occasion when some of the dudes I worked with grabbed my keys when I wasn't looking and smuggled a four foot tall nutcracker into the backseat of my car.
Hm. I've just mentioned this, but when I think it doesn't happen anymore, someone will tell me I just broke into a Southern Cali accent. Usually when I'm giggly and talking fast. And then I have to explain to them why the hell I have a second accent. (Years ago, I used to Skype with a best friend/would-be boyfriend in California most nights, for five years. It's odd because I don't really remember the relationship fondly anymore and I don't often have occasion to talk to anyone with an American accent. I spent just a couple months in Orange County seven years ago, but I hated the place itself.) I can't sit through a church service without crying. I'm pretty sure. Don't want to test this theory again. I thought it was just a one-off, when I tried going back to church after I started doubting my faith and suddenly this big comforting building just felt empty and full of wilfully deluded people. Then later, at a funeral, when the hardest part was sitting through a service that felt painfully empty to me, knowing how important it was to my religious extended family. Years later, my boyfriend starts looking into Catholicism and convinces me to come along for an Easter service, and I can't stop weeping inarticulately through the whole thing, even though I don't give a damn about Jesus's suffering through the Stations of the Cross. The only thing I could point to that bothered me specifically was the stupid amount of kneeling and standing in a Catholic service, and the statue-kissing. I don't think of myself as hostile to religion (anymore), but something still unsettles me about churches. A shorter one... I've been told I cross the road a funny way, walking quick and deliberate and prim compared to my usual gait. And when I'm at home, or somewhere I know the layout very well, I have a speedy and precise way of getting around by skipping lightly and darting about on the balls of my feet.
I'm severely thanatophobic, which is the fear of death. I'd definitely call it odd, more often people are afraid of spiders. I give my pets last names. My cats are called Greg Cambell and Niamh Island. Sometimes I think in pig latin, leftover from speaking it and only it for months on end as a child.
Love this. I gave some of my pet sheep last names, eg Stacey Lambert. I love how my (and presumably all) vets dispense meds with the animal's name and your surname, like Fluffy McDonald. I'm more 'awww' over a baby animal than a baby human. I've listened to the Hamilton Cast Album so much I'll wake up with lines of it running through my head.
I always hold my plate when I'm eating rather than set it on the table. It drives my family crazy. I'm just kind of paranoid about getting food on my shirts. lol
As a parent, my kids wouldn't eat until they put their damn plates down on the table. Just the thought of my kids doing something like this makes my blood boil, hah.
I read books in the shower. Rarely library books, though. And I do mean shower, not just bathtub. (Books in the bathtub are such a given that they don't call for comment.)
How? I mean, I know how to read, but how do you avoid them turning back to steamed pulp? I can't even read my waterproof tablet in the bath, thanks to my crap vision; glasses just steam up, but I can't imagine trying to hold a book outside of the waterstream and keep my hands dry at the same time.
And that's why a beer is better than a book in the shower. Beers are rugged and water resistant. And forgiving of user error. Actually if there's a more all-purpose, utilitarian product than a can of beer I'd love to hear about it. New thread: what's the weirdest thing you bring into the shower? And which objects would you rather have than a can of beer in these [member submitted] situations. Like if you were broke down on the side of the road and had to walk five miles to the nearest telephone, would you rather have a book, a flashlight, or a can of beer?
I do indeed hold it out of the waterstream, mostly successfully. I sometimes hurriedly open the shower door and put the book on the toilet tank so that I can wash my hair with both hands. Sometimes I just wash my hair one-handed. The one-handed hair washing does mean that I have limited control over just how much shampoo I squeeze out of the bottle and onto the top of my head. (It has to be on top. If I squeeze it, say, right over an ear, it will slide off before I put the bottle down.)
That's commitment and I'm glad I read it in context. I'll add a quirk of mine that adds a bit of veracity to the mixed accents ^ uptherementioned somewhere. I swear in a southern accent, even though I'm a northern fella. I lived in warmer UK climes, for a few of my formative years, in surrounds where bad language was more the norm. Up here, there's less cause to curse so that part of my vocab. seems stuck in the past.
When I get really pissed off, I swear in North Korean. Don't show me the Queen of Diamonds, it won't end well.
Five miles? I'm gonna need another beer, unless it's one of the Asahi supertalls I had last week. Yes, that's a liter of Asahi Super Dry, the Tory's next to it is a regular 350ml/~12 oz.
I have to have the shower curtain open when no one is using the shower and if i go to someones house and use their restroom and the curtain is close i have to peek behind it before i can use the facilities.
Well you already know my odd quirks. And if you don't then my avatar at the present should give some indication.
I've never met, or really heard of, anyone who dislikes food as much as me, except for people with actual eating disorders. But eating is boring for me when it's not annoying, stressful or highly irritating. I have wistful feelings about what it'd be like if my experiences with food aligned more with just about everyone in my life. The problem is having very, very strong tastebuds. Almost every meal grosses me out in some way. I have nauseous aversions to both flavours and textures. I've got a couple of favourite foods that are a comfort, but part of me resents that I'm stuck with simple or weird meals that would get sideways glances. I also have that more common thing where you forget to eat or don't feel the hunger until you're physically weak from lack of eating. Less unusual, but it's part of it.
Yeah, it seems pretty obvious that I just register bitterness, sourness, saltiness and sweetness way stronger than most people, but I haven't sought actual diagnosis. The problem foods listed for supertasters are a good summary, so it makes sense. I think because I learned from a young age to distrust food, I picked up a lot of bad associations with texture, too, which shouldn't come into it as much. Like, I can't mix solids and liquids, so noodle soup or even yogurt with fruit creeps me out. I kind of assume all the emotional bullcrap I bring into it is just me, and that other supertasters probably cope better.
