I opine that EVERYONE does something that most other people would consider strange. Heck, you might even realize that what you are doing is strange, but you still keep doing it that way…just because, well, that’s the way you like to do that thing. Call it anything from a confirmed habit to a compulsion. A tiny touch of OCD, in a very loose use of the term.
Shall we compare quirks? Maybe we’ll find out who holds the Quirkiest Doper title.
I’ll start:
I always count the ice cubes as I put them in the glass. It doesn’t matter what the answer is, I won’t refuse to drink from a glass with an odd number of cubes or anything like that, but I ALWAYS count how many there are. Maybe I’m expecting Monty Hall to pop in and offer what’s behind Door Two if I can tell him how many cubes are in my glass.
Here’s another:
I don’t like to wear any new item of clothes I buy until I’ve owned it for at least two weeks. No idea why I do this, I don’t think it relates to a superstition or anything, but that’s what I do. Exceptions have been made, like the time the airlines lost my luggage, but…
One for my husband:
If I buy sheets of postage stamps that come with multiple images, like 5 different birds, he looks at the stamps, ranks the images for how attractive they are, and then uses up all each kind before starting on the next, going worst to prettiest. This is so confirmed with him that I cater to his quirk. Otherwise I have to explain “Why did you use that pretty mockingbird stamp when there are still some Carolina wrens?” (:rolleyes: – but in a kindly way.)
Okay, fess up your own quirks – or out some loved one.
Unfortunately mine probably is a form of ocd! I cant eat tick tacks in odd numbers and if they are the green and orange ones you get in the same packet it must be one of each. Also if I rub my left eye I have to rub my right one too. Same with if my right hand was itchy I would have to itch my left one with the same time and pressure used even though it isnt itchy at all! I have a ton of these, thankfully my other oddities are not so compulsive! Man, I should really get some help!
Every time I read someones date of birth in a newspaper or on line, I compute their age in my mind by subtraction. I HAVE to, not want to. And I’m not that good at subtraction!
Whenever I climb stairs, I count them to myself in my head. And I can remember the number of stairs on a particular stairwell weeks, even years later.
When I eat M&M’s, I dump them all out, eat the brown ones first, then eat other colors until there’s an equal number of all the colors. Then I eat all of one color at a time, always ending with green.
When I’m in a restaurant or bar, I MUST sit so I can see as much of the room as possible. Luckily most of my friends and family know this one and often will let me pick where I sit before they sit down.
I store waaay more food in my cabinets than most people would store. I gained a cabinet after a home improvement project this summer, and had enough food to fill it before the cabinet was even done. I could go for months without going to the store before running out of things to eat. Some of that is for practical purposes, some of it is just me being quirky.
If there is a pattern on the floor, I like to walk on it a certain way to amuse myself. E.g. if there is a black and white checkerboard pattern, I might make a game out of stepping on only black squares. Even when I don’t, I often pay attention to the pattern and think about stepping only in certain spots.
If I get a new song that I love, I will play it repeatedly and sing to it for the first evening or two. This annoyed the dog when he was alive, and he’d heave himself off the floor, let out an exasperated sigh, and retreat to the bedroom to get away from me. I can’t say I blamed him, but given that he sometimes annoyed me with his own quirks, I figured he could deal with mine.
This is known among some of my friends as the “power seat”. You ideally have your back to a wall so no one is going to approach you unexpectedly and you can observe the general comings and goings in the room. Meanwhile your friends are left staring at a wall. (I don’t mean to say this is why you like it.)
Certain dishes and kitchen gadgets are meant for certain tasks and to use them otherwise is an affront to the gods. For example, remember those plastic Ziploc plates and bowls that came with lids? My husband used a lid as a plate one day. He used a lid as a plate. I was horrified. And sometimes he uses a spoon to spread peanut butter, or a plastic storage container as a cereal bowl - he’s trying to drive me slowly insane, I know it.
Oh - feel free, I know exactly why I do it, and that’s why. I see what’s going on everywhere in the room. I’m a people watcher.
Also, I’m in Witness Protection and this way I can see if my Russian Mafia buddies are sneaking up on me. If they were smart, they’d just blast me through the outside wall, but I got 'em fooled so far.
When I shower I wash my hair and then put in the conditioner. I leave it in my hair while I wash the rest of my body (from the top down), then I rinse the conditioner out of my hair, then I wash my face. Then, when necessary, I shave my legs. If I don’t shower in this order I can’t remember what I’ve done or not done and then I end up washing everything 3 or 4 times.
I have to brush my teeth (yeah I’m a weird shower brusher) while the conditioner is on, then wash my body (face last!), because I don’t like conditioner residue on me.
Also, I have to add up individual numbers in a string of digits down to a single digit. For example, 7416: 7+4=11, 1+1=2, 2+1=3, 3+6=9. If there’s a 9 in the string or two digits adding up to 9, I stop immediately because I know the outcome will be 9.
ETA: I don’t do this compulsively, like if I’m in traffic and see a telephone number on a nearby car I don’t start adding it all up without thinking. But it’s one of the things I’ll do automatically if bored, like in a doctor’s office or something and I’ve run out of things to read.
Criminy but it’s hard to write down what I do mentally correct: any result of 9 is rejected automatically from the figuring, rather than a result always being 9. I had to actually go through this on paper a few times to figure out what I do automatically. :smack:
Except for the leg shaving part, I do this too. Exact same routine.
Also (geez, these are coming out of the woodwork of my head!), I read license plates to see if the 3 numbers match the 3 letters. For example “741 GDA” would be one. Even if the letters aren’t in the same order. I don’t know what I do with these staggering coincidences, but there you are.
I grocery shop in order of how large, fragile or heavy things are. I’ll buy cases of beer, cat litter, milk first, then move on the canned goods, then boxes like cereal or crackers or whatever, then lastly eggs, fruits and veggies.
I never sit with my back to an openable door. Not because I’m genuinely afraid of being snuck up upon and bonked over the head - it’s just an ingrained habit. I remember having a snorting “of course” reaction when I read about the main character in Dune being told off about it.
Of course, sometimes I don’t have a choice - at full restaurants and the like - and it makes me itchy and tense. I don’t mind having crowds at my back - despite being slightly agoraphobic, I have only small problems walking down Karl Johan in the middle of the day during rush hour, or going to cinemas - but sitting around without knowing what goes on behind me . . . gurgh.
Also, I hate glasses and will drink of cups only. You’ll not find a single glass in any of my dishes unless I’ve been entertaining.
If I’m having a Coke it should be, if possible, poured cold into a glass containing two ice cubes. Why? Because it tastes better that way.
I also have to fixed misarranged items in stores. If the shelf is messy it must be straightened.
Finally I find it almost a physical compulsion to correct factual misinformation in a conversation. Any conversation. This includes ones between strangers that I’m not even involved in. I don’t do this because it’d be very rude but its an act of will every time. When asked why I feel the need to do this by a friend all I could come up with was “But its wrong! And now the other guy thinks its right but its not! Its wrong and thats bad!”
