We all have habits. Wether it be waking up at a certain time, brushing your teeth in a certain way, sleeping in a certain position, smoking cigarettes, etc.
Sometimes we have habits that are really annoying to other people, but we can´t help but continue doing them.
I’ll start:
Everytime I get in a car, if I’m not driving, I´ll put on my headphones and listen to music for hours straight. Everytime people try to talk to me, they’ll have to talk loud in order for me to remove my headphones, to then liten to what they have to say. Sometimes, I will go on “auto-pilot” and say “yes” or “interesting” to everything they ask me. This usually manages to piss off everybody I know, my friends, my family (especially my dad). I will evenually get yelled at, and I will then be forced to turn off my ipod.
One day, it will be tossed out a window. I know it.
I look for exceptions to any statement that doesn’t mention them. It annoys people because they perceive it as argument, when often, it’s no more than simple exploration of scope - but I can’t help doing it.
I twirl my hair. Twisting it in to a little loop and playing with its silkiness calms me, somehow. Don’t ask.
I’ll inevitably switch a song halfway through. I don’t know why. I think I just get bored of it before its done playing, or I think of something else that I’d rather be listening to. There’s only so many hours in my life that I can be listening to things, and I’d rather not waste them.
Touching or “picking” at my face. I don’t even notice it, but when I get anxious or nervous about something someone will snap at me to stop. And I am not sure if it is so much annoying to others, but when I am standing in a group of people and we are all talking… I will start rocking back and forth.
It has become this thing that when I do it, my boss and other co-workers will rock and back forth with me… it’s only then I realize I’m doing it.
I bite the inside of my cheeks. I never realize that I’m doing it, and it doesn’t make any noise, but I apparently make a weird face when I’m doing it. It drives my husband (and my dentist) crazy.
There’s a library patron who somehow with his mouthparts makes this duck quacking noise when he’s concentrating on something. Or when he’s not concentraing on something. Or just whenever. It’s the weirdest most obnoxious thing ever, especially because you want to sit there and experiment with your cheeks and tongue and moving air around and stuff to see if you can make the noise, but he’s sitting right there and that wouldn’t be polite, would it?
I too, used to feel uncomfortable about silences. That is, until I saw Pulp Fiction.
I love (and understand) the line when Uma Thurman says:
(I´m paraphrasing)
“Why is it that we humans feel the need to bable about crap when there is nothing to be said, why can´t we all just share the silence? That´s when you know when you´ve found someone special, when you can just both be quite and feel comfortable with each others company”
