Yeah... I cringe whenever I go to look in the mirror and it seems like half of my face fuzz went on vacation. When I get so focused on my writing or artwork, for instance, I don't even notice ~90% of the other actions I do. In those times, plucking my hairs is as natural to me as shifting in my seat, or even blinking, which scares me.
That is fantastic! I never like to eat when there is a buffet style layout or when people have potlucks (especially if I don't know them). I know that they are instantly contaminated. Spit, breath, bacteria, pet hair, dirty fingers.. I never take the top plates, napkins, 1st glass... (packaged goods in stores even) and utensils.. make my palms sweat. I'm skeptical about everything, and I know I'm not the only one..
I count the syllables of the last sentence someone says, or while they're talking if they say something in an interesting rhythm.
I meow when I'm stressed. Sometimes it surprises even me. I'm still capable of speech at that point, but I'll just meow at random in between sentences. I have no idea where I picked this up from, but I've done it for about three years now.
I rock back and forth when sitting or just keep moving any part of my body either nodding my head,twisting my thumbs or cracking my knuckles. I also twirl my hair repeatedly when reading and try to imagine myself with various diseases.
I crack my knuckles a lot. Not just my knuckles, but the upper finger joint too. And my toes. If my hair is up in a ponytail, I tend to play with it- run my fingers through it, twirl it around my fingers... I love the sensation of something silky running through my fingers. I like the smell of a freezer when you stick your head way down in it. I used to stick my head in the freezers in the grocery store as a child and just smell them. Drove my mom crazy. I have this weird issue with calling someone I don't know. I hate calling businesses or anything like that. I've gotten better at it, but it's still this huge reluctance that I have to push myself past. Sometimes I get really anti-social and don't feel like talking to anyone. I'm 32 and still imagine myself in fantasy stories when lying in bed trying to go to sleep. Like, we just watched Wonder Woman, so I laid in bed and imagined this whole storyline where I was an Amazon warrior with her. Or if I've just read a really good book, I'll imagine I'm a character in the book and sort of role-play in my head until I fall asleep.
You know, there's a word for children who never grow up and who never stop playing in make-believe worlds with imaginary friends: Writers
Haha... thats the writer's curiosity. I'm like that with everybody. It's like, "Oh, you're a (blank) what do think about (blankety blank)?" Dentists are my favorite to mess with.
I worked at a call center and had a guy from FEMA call in. That was the second-longest call I'd ever had, and it was my fault. I got written up for taking two hours to fix his cell phone, but it was so worth it. The longest call I ever had was from a lady who went to Italy for two weeks and came home to a $16,000 (~£12350) phone bill.
Hmm, I kind of forgot this, but I collect* tobacco pipes. I don't smoke (anymore**), and I was never really a pipe smoker, but I've got several meerschaum pipes from Turkey , a massive carved wooden dragon that I bought in Beijing without negotiating, and on my last trip home, I bought something called a "Wanderer". Or maybe "Rover." Or Opportunity, Curiosity, or.... Shit, I dunno, but there's something beautiful about them. The next time I go to Istanbul***, I'm going to snag a meerschaum calabash, come hell or high water. *When I say "collect," I mean that I buy pipes that I a) like the look of, and b) like the price of, given my circumstances at the time. I've paid as little as $15, and as much as $350, and every one of them was worth exactly, if not slightly more, than what I paid for it, because I wanted it that much. ** Yeah, I still smoke my hookah from time to time, and when I get drunk, I bum cigarettes, but that's a special occasion. I've fired every gun I own, but most of my pipes are display pieces only. However, when the mood warrants, I'll buy a pouch of pipe tobacco from the local shop and smoke... one or two bowlsful? *** I hope so. I've been there three times before, and it's the only thing, out of everything, that remains at the top of my bucket list. I'll just finish up with this:
There's a Sherlock Holmes story (The Man with the Twisted Lip, I think) where Holmes says "This is a three-pipe problem, Watson" or somesuch. What I am sure about is the phrase relating to the quantity of pipes. So, logically, your sentence should read... However, when the mood warrants, I'll buy a pouch of pipe tobacco from the local shop and smoke... one or two pipes. I'd also suggest editing out the adjectival pipe - if you're talking about a pipe, do you need to specify the type of tobacco?
1) Yeah, probably right, but I'm of a generation and (series of) profession(s) that I was overwhelmed by the necessity of emphasizing that I was talking about tobacco, and not any other things that are apparently smoked out of pipes. See below: 2) That was Sherlock Holmes. I have it on good authority* that one of those pipes was full of tobacco, another of marihuana, the third of an early, experimental form of crack cocaine, and that the famous detective was smoking them all simultaneously! *I just made that shit up, but you already know that. 3) Dude....this is Character Quirks thread, not the Workshop ("This we offer in humility and fear, for the blessed peace of your eternal slumber, as it ever was.") or even its lesser half-cousin, Share Your First Three Sentences....)
It doesn't take much to make me happy. I get very excitable and sometimes when I see a pretty mountain view or rainbow or a field of wildflowers, it brings tears to my eyes.
That reminds me of a joke I came up with. There's a famous author doing a book signing, and a little girl with pretty yellow ribbons ask for one. He's very happy. He notices the girl's mother is someone he didn't like in high school but she's smiling now. Then a massive metal appliance comes up. "Hey" it says "I'm a huge fan."
So I'll have variations of pressing my thumb and fingers into something in a "measure". So let's I'm on the computer and just using the mouse, I might hold my shin with my left hand and then press into it with my thumb once, then all my other fingers twice, and then my thumb once again. That's a "measure" starting with the thumb. Then I'll alternate my pressing my fingers first, thumb twice, and fingers again. I'll do that twice in a row, then do the one starting with my thumb again. If I don't do that whole sequence completely or forget where I was at, I'll start over. Sometimes I'll vary that by using both of my hands and tapping on something in the same sequence. Sometimes I'll press my index and middle finger to my thumb, and thumb to the index and middle and just do it like that. Sometimes I'll do a variation with both of my hands doing the index and middle finger thing. I also do the same sequence with rolling my tongue to the left, right right, left; right, left, left, right; etc. Another habit I have is digging under each of nails with one thumb, again in a similar rhythm and doing that for both hands.
I have fewer than 75 "friends" on Facebook. Three of them are dead, two are family members who I've both friended and blocked because we aren't on speaking terms, and two and a half of them are sockpuppets. Sockpuppet #1 is Iain, #2 is a friend operating under an alias that can't be traced back to him (I'm friends with both his personae) so he can speak freely, and #.5 is a friend who claims, and seems, to have a genuine multiple personality disorder.
I used to have a few hundred friends on Facebook, but a while ago I trimmed my friends list of people that haven't talked to me in years, or routinely post poorly thought out political comments, racist bullshit, and Minion memes. Now I'm down to 115.
I have around 20 friends on FB. 2 are people I have never met in person, nor interact with regularly. 22 on FL, but I talk to 2, and a third that is not my 'friend'. Everybody else is either someone that I have followed their exploits for years, or is just trying to accumulate people by feeling popular with a high count. Got rid of the one dude selling official blood stained gloves, the blood is supposedly of his girly. Pretty sure that falls under a Class 1 or 2 biohazard, and might get him arrested. Cause now a days you can't even get your teeth back from the dentist, and they are a Class 3 biohazard. Though I can only imagine what Class filthy used panties falls under...And people think I am out there.
