Idiosyncrasies

I'm doing a Swap Bot swap called "The Un-Journaling Journal Swap."  It is supposed to last for the year and each month you pick 10 topics from among a lengthy list and write at least a page about each topic.  One of the topics I thought might be fun was "What are some of your idiosyncrasies?  I thought I would also post it here (especially since I was watching a PBS special about J.D. Salinger that went on much longer than I expected, though it was fascinating and I couldn't leave it....what an odd duck he was...and what a warning for the results of instant fame!)

Anyway, here are some of my idiosyncrasies.

* I guess the fact that I need the TV on for white noise is an idiosyncrasy. I’ve had the TV on in my house all the time, ever since I first moved away from my parents when I was 18. In fact, I think it was the first Christmas that I was dating Walt when his mother gave me a Popeye movie for Christmas because she knew I watched that cartoon so often (I actually rarely watched it, but it was the only thing interesting on when I got home from work each day and I turned it on for background noise). For some reason, listening to music makes me nervous and I turn it off quickly (though I used to listen to music all the time). I have seen every episode of NCIS , Criminal Minds and Golden Girls so often that I hardly pay attention to the plots any more. It’s more like being at a family gathering and having the familiar, comforting sound of family talking in the background to make you feel safe.

* Though I like salads, I hate lettuce on sandwiches. If I forget to order a sandwich without lettuce, or if they bring it to me with lettuce on it anyway, I always scrape it off...which is nice for Walt, who loves lettuce.

* The only time I take my glasses off is if I am lying down to go to sleep. I sleep on the couch in the living room or in the recliner in the family room. If I’m on the couch, I take my glasses off; if I am in the recliner, I keep them on.

* I always have my camera with me and take pictures of everything, though my photos are just snapshots and rarely achieve the status of "photography."

* I am always picking at my nails. I don’t bite my fingernails, but I do try to split the top of the nail from the underneath part of the nail. Whenever I do it, I am taken back to grammar school, when our school playground backed up on the church, which was made of rough stone.  I would spend a lot of time with a bobby pin, rubber tip removed, chipping away at the stone, trying to get flakes off of it.  Now there is an idiosyncrasy!

* I can wiggle my ears, though I rarely do a demonstration.

* I am able to handwrite, but I much prefer typing. My hand can’t keep up with my brain, so when I handwrite something, it’s never as interesting as when I type something.

* I am a good writer, but I write terrible fiction.  I heard about someone who had so many stories in her head that when she went to sleep, she could choose which story she wanted to enter as she went to sleep.  I decided to try creating a story as I went to sleep and couldn't come up with a single one.

* I wear socks all the time, preferably the loose fuzzy ones. I used to be barefoot all the time, but now it feels weird to be barefoot.

* I still count on my fingers and don’t you dare ask me what time two trains will meet if one leaves station A at a certain time and one leaves station B at another time. I sometimes have to use the computer calculator to remember how old one of my children is...or how long Dave and Paul have been dead.

* I compulsively buy post cards, though I have enough in my collection to take me through Swap Bot swaps for the next two dozen years.

* Though I am a fairly good cook, I can't master gravy and never make it.

* I also sewed my very first thing in about 25 years (I hemmed pants for my mother) last week. Walt had shirts needing buttons 40 years ago that he finally threw out because I never put buttons on them.