Six Quirks

I was "tagged" to do this by my sister-in-law Linda (Linda, I loved this pic you posted so much that I just had to put it on my blog, too). I consider myself to be a quirky person, so it was hard to choose the six quirks I wanted to share. Enjoy!

1. I am VERY OCD when it comes to eating my food. I have a method for eating everything, and I mean everything. I could do an entire blog about just my food quirks. But let me list a few to give you an idea. I am obsessed with finding the "optimum bite" in whatever food I'm eating. I'm always analyzing my food and calculating what the best bite will be, and then I save it for last. If a meal has carrots, potatoes, and meat, I want every bite to have one of each because I like how they taste together. So first I cut up the item that I have the least of (which is usually the meat), count the number of pieces I have, and cut up the remaining two ingredients to match. I then find the largest (and least fatty) piece of meat, a large piece of carrot, and a relatively small piece of potato (because this the perfect balance), and set them aside for my last bite. I then usually select a second and third "best bite" before proceeding to actually eat anything.

Because this first example was so long, I'll just give one more. You will never see me just grab a handful of colored candy and pop them into my mouth. First of all, I usually like to eat candy one piece at a time and savor it. Secondly, when I eat candy that has different colors, like M'n'Ms, I always count out how many of each color I have, then eat the ones I have more of first, systematically of course. I do this even when I know that the colors don't make them taste any different.

As you may have guessed, my quirkiness causes me to be a very slow eater. I always had a secret fear that my food habits would become a source of annoyance to my future husband. I am SO grateful that Jeff is so loving and understanding about my food habits. In fact, they amuse him and he understands the logic behind them (though this doesn't stop him from eating normally).

2. I LOVE to floss my teeth. I'd rather floss than brush. The dentist always comments on what healthy gums I have. Hardly a day goes by when I don't floss. I carry floss in my purse, because I can't stand it when I have the urge to floss and can't. I'm very thorough and love the feeling of my mouth after a good flossing session.

3. I can't talk about serious things when I'm driving a car. I've found that I need to focus on the road, and it stresses me out to try to focus on more than one thing. I don't have any problem conversing about little things or listening to the radio, but I can't talk about something serious that needs my undivided attention. My brain just can't multi-task that way. So Jeff and I have discovered that, if we want to have a serious discussion in the car, he needs to be the one who's driving.

4. I don't like to be touched repeatedly in the same spot - anywhere. If someone comes up and pats my shoulder a few times, I shrug them off. It's nothing personal - it just gets to a point where I can't stand it. I have a higher tolerance with Jeff than I do with most people, but I sometimes have to let him know that he's patted my arm one too many times.

5. I never got over the "simple joys in life," as I like to call them. These include kicking icicles off of the bottom of cars (even when it's not my car - Jeff is always afraid I'm gonna rip some paint off or set off a car alarm), sliding down banisters, climbing trees barefoot, running and sliding on patches of ice, crunching leaves, and throwing helicopters (maple tree seeds) up into the air by the handful just to watch them spin to the ground. I hope I never outgrow these things. :)

6. When I'm focusing on doing something, I stick my tongue out slightly. I often don't know I'm doing it - someone usually has to tell me. I actually did it several times while typing this blog, and Jeff caught me doing it, so that's how it became #6 on my list.

So there you go. I hope you enjoyed reading about a few of my quirks. For my family members that are reading this and thought of some I should have added but didn't, I'd love for you to post a note telling me what they are. And feel free to do this in your own blogs if you'd like. I won't bother "tagging" specific people - just do it if you want to.