When You're Strange...

My daughter Em confesses that she cannot leave the house in the morning with the bed unmade. No matter what other distractions are going on in her life, she can claim “inner peace” if she knows her bed covers are neatly arranged. 

I have the same idiosyncrasy. A made bed is a place of instant refuge where I can fold clothes, spread out homework, or talk to a son. An unmade bed leaves me feeling that not only is my bed out of order, but my entire house.

Her confession got me thinking about the odd little things that make us unique--those things that mark us as individuals. For example, Gnome can mess up a cliché better than anyone I know.

Gnome: What’s it called when something is like a conglomeration for a tragedy?
Neo: You mean a recipe for disaster?

Son Weston also has his own little oddities.

1.    He refuses to eat from silverware. Only plastic will do. He doesn’t like metal in his mouth.

2.    He won’t wear work gloves if someone else wore them first because he doesn’t want to touch someone else’s sweat.

3.    At night, after I sit with him for a few minutes in his room, he must yell one more “I love you,” after I close his door. If he thinks I haven’t heard him, he will keep yelling it until he hears me yell it in return.

4.    He won’t let me dish up his food until he has inspected his plate and cup to make sure there are no residual food pieces that the dishwasher didn’t catch.  My word isn’t enough.


Computer Geek has a few little strange habits of his own.

1.    He is very mild tempered. He only yells when the TV is on and a politician is spouting some intentional disinformation. “Which is pretty much any time they talk,” he says. If the news is on, you can pretty much expect the obscenities to be rolling at our house. Loudly.

2.    When he drives, he gravitates toward oncoming traffic. It’s scawy.

3.    The eggs in the carton must always be symmetrical.  This is what I saw when I opened the carton the other day:

You didn’t think I would expose the bizarre habits of others without throwing in a few of my own, did you?

1.    I can fall asleep anytime, anywhere. I have been known to sit down at my computer after school and wake up an hour later. Today I sat on the couch and woke up three hours later. If CG and I are driving somewhere and it takes ten minutes, I can tell him “Wake me up when we get there,” and have a good nap. But, when it’s night, and it’s actually time to sleep in my bed I can’t go to sleep unless a fan is blowing.

2.    Onions are anathema to me. I look for them in the ingredients of any entrée. At restaurants, I always have to ask if the item is made with onions. I have discovered a truth—people who don’t hate onions lie. They tell me there are no onions when really there are. Mom.

3.    I could eat a whole carton of ice cream by myself. I’ve never done it, because I don’t want to have to admit to the rest of the family that I ate all the ice cream, but I know I could if I had to.

Well, it’s off to bed for me. With my fan. But before I go I want to know-- What are some of your little idiosyncrasies?