When I reheat food in the microwave, I love it when the cling film shrink wraps the top of the food. I love it because for a few seconds I get to pretend I’m an astronaut eating pre-prepared space food.
If i consciously notice a box of q-tips / ear buds in a bathroom, I'll clean my ears. I'm not obsessed about the state of my ears, but it's a compulsion i can't shake. As a result i clean my ears probably two or three times a day, and they're the cleanest ears in the west. I apparently also have a habit of holding the nape of my neck. i have no idea why, but I've done it three or four times just writing this post...
When I meet someone new I quietly think about what kind of car they remind me of. I catalog that information away in my mind and keep it forever.
I have to meditate myself to sleep otherwise my brain goes in circles, hexagons, or deformed waffle-shaped things like a squirrel on a caffeine high.
I almost always eat small candies and chocolates (gummi bears, jelly beans, M&Ms) in groups of three. Also, by doing this, I've discovered that many of them tend to be packaged in multiples of three.
Sometimes I dig in my nose which is a nasty habit, sleep naked sometimes with my underwear on, and I get chilly when the AC is on during the Summer and chilly when its winter and have to wear tons of clothes to heat up.
I’ve never understood the problem people have with this. If there’s stuff up there causing irritation, it needs to come out. Asking people not to pick their nose is like asking them not to clean their ears.
yeah i'd rather you didn't clean your ears in front of me either, or scratch your balls, ... particularly if you are serving my food
I didn't say I do it in front of people, I was commenting on the fact that it's considered a "nasty habit".
tbh what you do in the privacy of you own home is no ones business but yours .... but I don't want to see you (or anyone) doing it in public - that's a nasty habit (talking of weird quirks I quite often sit with mu hands inside my shorts - not doing anything you understand but just resting.... its comforting, like having a pouch ) I don't do that in public either
Miss Manners had a clear position on this: That manners are about what you do around other people. Manners don't care what you do privately. Now, morals probably care whether you wash your hands afterward and before you go around other people.
Great thread. As I was reading through some of your quirks, I had to think about things that I did which may seem odd to others. I was an only child for a number of years and had learned to read at a very young age. I can recall reading Cinderella to my Mom at 5, she thought I had memorized it. Where this gets odd though, is that most of the reading I wanted to do after that were of publications of Ripley's Believe It Or Not, and a few other books which made it into my 'I want to read something other than the cereal box , such as Harriet the Spy, and A Stitch In Time. I would even read encyclopedias and I really got a kick out of sharing what I had learned with others. As a child, this is endearing, however as an adult, when I've read something I find particularly hilarious (like this for instance http://www.burrardstreetjournal.com/vancouver-cougar-attack-shock-in-nightclub/) I find myself having to explain to people what I've read and often they don't get why I find it funny... Additionally, it has caused issues with others, because I love learning (the whole inspiration behind my name CE) some will think that I immediately think myself somehow smarter or better than them, which mystifies the heck out of me. It probably also doesn't help that I have resting b__ch face either.
I completely get this, I do the same thing. I know why I do it though, its because it FEELS amazing. My husband keeps q-tips in the basement for his hobby projects and I will sometimes sneak down there to use one if needed.
I have a couple of old work shirts with snaps instead of buttons. They're almost too small on me, but I wear them when I'm having a bad day because it means I can randomly flex and pretend I'm Lou Ferrigno when no ones looking.
@The Dapper Hooligan I pick up on accents very easily, to the point that people sometimes think I'm mocking them, but I don't even realize I'm doing it. I just start talking the way they are. Even movies/radio can trigger it. (which I didn't actually realize would be considered a quirk until it was recently pointed out to me).
I find the color yellow to be....irritating. Not in nature, I think the Sun and flowers are quite beautiful. But on clothes people become walking sticks of butter. I also listen to Christmas music anytime of the year and I'm not even that big a Christmas freak.
My daughter (UK-born and raised) also picks up accents easily...we can now hear quite an Aussie twang when she skypes home...with the result that she was accused by one of her Aussie neighbours of having "the worst fake British accent" he'd ever heard! On another occasion (before she'd moved down under) she and her then-boyfriend were in the US for a friend's wedding. In a lift, he said something to her, and one of the natives said something to her friend about a cute British accent. My daughter replied to her boyfriend, and the native girl exclaimed "Gee! She's got it too!"
I shake bananas before I peel them. I feel it comes from shaking a bottle of milk before opening and using it, but I have no idea why.
I have quite a thing about naming my characters. I find I'n generally quite good at names. But I obseess sometimes over the ones I've created. Like how many in a thing have a certain letter balance. Or how many start witha certain letter. I get particularly obsessive when I do something with invented names. tHeY'rE mY nAmEs AnD i MuSt MaKe ThEm PeRfEcT!
I have trichotillomania, a disorder where I habitually pull out my hair. For some reason, I only pull out my beard hairs, but I still don't know how to stop it. I don't want to stay clean shaven all the time, because I like the feel of a beard, but I know if I keep a beard, my hair pulling will eventually thin it out to the point it looks awful. I generally pull my hair when I'm in concentration or stressed out, which is almost always... I'm ashamed to even tell anyone.
When I had a beard, I would ruthlessly hunt down the weird "mutant" hairs. Sometimes my purges would go a little overboard though, so I know how you feel.
