Odd little habits you have

In My Humble Opinion
261

Wow, this thread saved my day. I just had to share:

When I brush my teeth, my tongue is constantly touching the toothbrush. Dentists gets quite frustrated when they try to examine my teeth.

I imagine laserbeams going out from all 90°-corners of houses, cars, poles, desks, or whatever, and I can’t step where those imaginary beams are. I’ve done this for as long as I can remember.

I always run in synch with other people, no matter how tall or short they are. My breathing is always in synch with my footsteps. Also, I breathe the same two-bar melody over and over when I run.

I eat raisins by twos, one in each side of the mouth.

I grind melodies with my teeth. There are 5 grind positions, and when the next tone is higher, I take a grindposition more to the right, lower to the left. If there are more than five ascending/descending tones in a row, I start over from the other side of the mouth. Then I try to go back because I want to end the melody where I started.

Additionally, when playing music, I grind back-forth in sixteenth note speed, to help me place dotted-eighths+sixteenths in tempo.

I crack my neck, back, hip and shoulders. Especially the neck and hip has caused people to beg me not to ever do it again, because it sounds load and really horrifying.

When I took long car trips as a kid I invented a ton of games to play. I would in my mind jump between shaded and lit faces on the road, clench my fists in different ways depending on the height of passing cars, stare at the road markings and form patterns, aah I can’t remember everything.

When music is being played I HAVE to beat time with my feet, hands, fingers, anyhing, it has to get OUT of my body.

I contantly play with anything within reach. Pens, phonecords, keys, whatever. I stright out paperclips. If I have two pieces of LEGO I figure out the maximum number of ways to combine them by testing, but after that I desperatly need something new to play with.

I always fold papers once before I throw them, no matter the size.

And, finally, I eat fries in order size, starting with the smallest… but I mix food :slight_smile:

I’m laying off more and more of these habits, though…

262

I always clean my contact lenses before I brush my teeth -
never vice versa.

263

Wow, I feel so much better about my weird stuff now.
So much so that I’ve delurkified myself so as I might share.

-I too have a morning routine that must not be deviated from. I have a bedtime routine too, same rules. Anything done out of order and my day/night is shot.

-I have to do certain things in powers of two times in order to even them out. Like if my hand brushes against a table unintentionally, I have to touch that table again until I’ve touched it 2, 4, 8 or 16 times. That way the accidental thing is sort of cancelled out.

-I have to step on sidewalk squares once with each foot, right first and then left. My right foot must be the first foot to step onto the next square.

-My right foot also has to be the first to step onto a new surface like going from sidewalk to street, floor to stairs, etc…

-When getting a piece of silverware out of the drawer I will spend a moment trying to find the best looking, cleanest one. This is usually only with spoons, although I am starting to do it more and more with knives and forks as well.

-I have this thing that I sometimes do when walking on the sidewalk. I don’t want a car to pass me unless there is grass between me and the car. If I am next to a driveway or a path from the sidewalk to the curb and there is a car coming, I have to speed up so that there is no direct cement path from me to the car.

-When I am eating or preparing food, my food must not touch the counter or the table, or I will not eat it. This is mostly a result of my Mom using this horrible rag to wipe up the counter all the time. That rag is just disgusting.

-I am not a seperate eater, however, I have to eat my food evenly until I end up with one bite of each item left.

-I also never crease the binding on my paperback books. Noone will believe that I actually read them since they look new. I hate it when a friend borrows a book from me and I get it back all mangled.

-I also do the thing where if I spin around, I have to spin the other way to undo it. If I see someone spin around and not undo it it irritates the hell out of me. Imagine there is a piece of string attached to you and to a fixed object in the room. Would you want that piece of string wrapped around you? That’s why you have to undo it.

I always thought that I was the only wierdo that did crazy stuff like this.
Who knew that there were so many psychos like me out there?

264

I love this thread, it’s so great. anyways, here are some of the odd habits i have:

  1. You know how paper-plates are usually stuck together by two’s? Well whenever I use a paper-plate, I have to open it up and stick my tongue in between the two plates and close it (i just love how it feels!). Then I continue to go around the whole plate sticking my tongue in and closing the plates until i get back to where i started. i’ve been doing this for as long as i can remember and i love how my tongue gets all stuck and dry when i close the plates.

  2. All of my hangers are arranged so that they alternate colors (red then black red then black etc.) and they all have to face the same way; also all the clothes on the hangers must all face the same way. Clothes of the same color can never be next to each other, i.e. two blue shirts cannot be next to each other. My closet always has to be arranged like this at all times or it drives me mad. And if i run out of hangers while hanging up clean laundry, i will throw the leftover clothes into the hamper.

  3. I can pee fully clothed but to do the other, i MUST be totally naked or else i won’t go, and while i’m going i HAVE to read the back of the same shampoo bottle every time (this gets really frustrating while i’m at college).

265

I like to dunk pretzels in beer. I swear it tastes just like cheese.

266

I used to find the middle of a sentence. For example:

“I used to find the middle of a sentence”

I’d count the letters, and find the middle letter, or the gap inbetween the middle two.

The middle of the above being between “the” and “middle”.

Bugged the hell outta me for a while.

267

I love this thread! Your quirks are wonderful!

I always have to have reading material with me. I don’t mind waiting anywhere for anything as long as I have something to read. Unless I’m with a group of people, I especially HAVE to read when I eat. If I don’t have something to read while I’m eating I get nervous and antsy. Luckily, my husband is the same way. When we’re eating out, people probably think we hate each other because he’ll be reading his book/magazine/whatever and I’ll be reading my book/magazine/whatever. We’d both grown up being told over and over that reading while eating is rude, so we were ecstatic when we found each other. (That was just one of many things that told us we were soul mates, but it was one of the most important!)

I also save the best bits of food for last. For example, I’ll eat a Hostess cupcake upside down. I’ll eat the cake-ish stuff first, making a circle around the cream-ish goo, then eat the outside of the icing, so that the last thing I stuff in my mouth will be icing and cream. (Also, I can’t eat a Hostess cupcake that way unless it’s cold, so therefore I never eat room-temperature Hostess cupcakes at all).

I s-p-e-l-l stuff out in my head all the time. I grew up on a farm and used to read dictionaries for fun, spelling everything over and over again.

I also separate M&Ms out according to color and eat them color by color.

I absolutely must have a fan going while I sleep!

I too sleep with a sheet, with one leg sticking out.

Oh, and when I eat Necco wafers, I stack them up according to color/flavor and eat them so that I always end up with one brown/chocolate, one white/cinnamon and one pink/whatever that is, and then finish them off in that order. (Btw, I throw away the black ones. I hate licorice).

Eq

“What the hell kind of clown are you?”
“The crying-on-the-inside kind, I guess”

268

I constantly find myself folding my lower lip in two and holding it like that with my front teeth. Sorry, it’s hard to explain that kinda thing without actually showing you.

I chew pencils like a nervous wreck, though I’m not.

I drum on everything.

I used to swish spit around in the front of my mouth, but I dropped that one. Surprisingly, not a single person ever confronted me about it; I know they heard it though. I’ve heard others do the same thing.

269

I suddenly feel utterly normal…

I also eat only one thing at a time. This drives my wife crazy.

If I’m having pizza, I take the cheese off the top with my fork. Then I sprinkly Parmesan (sp?) on the cheese-less slice and eat that. Then I eat the cheese and toppings with a knife and fork. Cold pizza gets eaten normally though.

I always wiggle my feet when I sleep. I can’t sleep anywhere near my wife’s breathing. If I can feel her breathing on me, I slide further over. If I’m on the edge of the bed I wake her up and make her roll over. (Apparently, I snore like a chainsaw too. I must be hell to sleep with.)

I always do the Jumble first, then the cryptogram, then the “Scrabble” puzzle and then the crossword. Never in any other order. It doesn’t matter if I get interrupted and don’t finish this however.

I’m a ‘rap on things to chase away the static electricity’ person too. When I get out of a car, I maintain contact with the frame all the time to prevent (99.5% of the time, anyways) myself from getting a shock.

(This is unconscious) I never finish a can of pop. When I visit my mother, this drives her crazy. She’ll pick up a can and swish it around to see if it’s empty. If it isn’t, she’ll demand that I drink it. I never do. :slight_smile:

270

I never play with the red deck of Bicycle cards.
I knew a guy once with some eye problem, so he had pink glasses. I always suspected they could be used to read a marked deck. Besides, blue just looks nicer. And it’s not like we ever lack for blue decks.

271

All the paper money in my wallet MUST be arranged thusly…the largest donimation in back and the smallest in front. They have to be in consecutve order and all face the same way. (Side effect of working retail for ten plus years)

My name is Hardygrrl and I’m addicted to peppermint Altoids.

The SDMB…" HI Hardygrrl"

Seriously…I am hooked. I probably go through 5 tins a week minimum. I have a tin for my purse and a big tin for my cube @ work. Maybe it’s because I’m embarassed I haven’t quit smoking yet and want to get that taste out of my mouth.

272

I just came across this thread and have been reading with facination - I had to register and post.

I too must have my bills in descending order in my wallet - and they have to be flat with no crumples.

I chew on the inside of my mouth when bored or anxious.

I like to run the flat part of my fingernails over my lips - always in order - thumb, pointer, birdie, etc. I also like to flick my nails against my teeth.

Can’t sleep with my back to the door or closet if I’m by myself. Also can’t have any body parts hanging off the bed (something might grab from underneath!!).

Also can’t sleep with my skin touching my husbands or if I can feel his breath. For a long time I couldn’t even face his direction, but I’m over that one. Must have pillows on all sides of me when he’s not home (he works at the fire dept. & is gone some nights).

I’ll stop there but could go on and on.

273

That’s not so strange. I read once where McDonald’s has a whole army of chefs who figure out the best order of ingredients on their new sandwiches.

One thing I used to to do, which I’ve conquered, is I would
never put my keys in the same pocket as my subway card, on the admittedly ridiculous idea that the keys would scrape the magnetized strip, rendering it useless.

274

::checkin all lace up shoes::
All my shoes are laced up exactly the same way: the lace coming from the outer edge of the shoe is always on top, the left and right shoe are exact mirror opposites of each other. I tie bows [ribbons, shoes, string, whatever] exactly the same way: the end that winds up on the left is on “my” side of the knot, and the other end is wrapped from the front to the back and under to make a bow. This makes the bow lay straight across my foot.

I grab my right ass-cheek everytime I leave my room. :slight_smile: I made a real ass of myself getting locked out of my room, and I live by myself. So I had to pay $5 to get back in. So now, I grab my pocket before I open the door. If the wallet and key are there, I open the door and grab my pocket again as I walk through and once more before the door closes. Even if I have just put my wallet in my pocket right in front of my door, I still grab my pocket as I shut the door, in case any gnomes grabbed it real quick. One of my friends has started grabbing my ass for me, just to be sure he says. :slight_smile:

275

holy sh*t, I thought I was the only person who did that. Only, I pretend that the whole vehicle is jumping [front wheels then back wheels, like a horse jumping] and only on the shadows, can’t touch the sun, sun is evil, evil i tell y-
::slaps face::
Sorry, I’ve been up too long. Seriously though, I always got a kick from imaging my parents '84 Suburban jumping from shadow to shadow. Especially when I was driving through the shadows of trees [insert mental image of vehicle bouncing back and forth like it’s convulsing].

yeah… i’m bonkers, and you love me anyway.
::tongue in cheek::
BTW galt, please slap me if you’ve been asked this before: is you first name John?

276

I live in Ireland hense the name and we call sidewalks footpaths and i HAVE to walk on the inside of the footpath other wise i would totally FREAK out

277

Oh, bless you people for having so many of my quirks.

I’m a one-item eater. There may be a correlation between one-item eating and whatever it is (intelligence?) that makes us like SD.

I did the laser beams from the 90 degree angles thing for years.

My dollars always face the same way.

When I put on my socks, I pull them all the way up, then turn down the top 1 1/2 inches or so.

When running on “idle”, I’ll do something that has 2 sounds or “feels” to it… like denting/releasing the side of a can of soda I just finished. I find myself going over a sentence I just heard, doing the denting in time with the syllables, making the “high” and “low” beats hit the accented and unstressed syllables.

Blankets and sheets have a top, bottom, head and foot. These are non-negotiable. Even nondescript blankets have a tag or other feature I’ll use to orient them.

My tongue follows my toothbrush. I didn’t notice that I did it till it was mentioned here.

I hate hate hate backsplash at the urinal. I’ll do whatever it takes to avoid it as much as possible.

I love having my finger under the tab on a pencap… the one that’s supposed to hold the pen to a paper or somesuch. The pressure of my fingertip held between the tab and pen is somehow soothing.

I down a can of soda in about 30 seconds. Even if I’m not really thirsty. This makes my gf’s habit of leaving sodas half-drunk very boggling to me.

I cannot sleep without a sheet or blanket. Further, it must reach my neck and be tucked under my heels.

Towels have one side for upper body/face, one side for below the waist.

I always want a window open, if only a little bit. Snow, rain, windstorm, driving past a hog farm; I still need that little bit of moving air.

278

I need my water to be icy icy cold, in a clear tall glass with a wide mouth. Then i take a super minature spoon and eat my water. I take a spoon full and, balancing it carefully, put the bowl of said spoon as far back on my toung as possible (aided by lack of gag reflex) then tilt it back so the icy cold water hits the back of my throat. It hits in the place where water doesnt normally go when one one swallows. I find this very satisfying. I have done this since i was a small child and though the habit has become less frequent with age, i belive it is more from lack of time than lessened enjoyment of the practice. I feel oddly gyped when i have to drink my water in any other way. (another reason i have supressed my need to do this is due to the fact that most people who have seen me do it look at me like i have two heads. my own mother laughed at me. Now that i am living alone, i have ample chance to practice this…and other weird habits.)

279

I CANNOT, REPEAT, CANNOT EAT OR DO ANYTHING ELSE WITHOUT READING. my mother and father used to scold me terribly as a child. It didnt help. i snuck books to the dinner table any how. and when they took those away, i read the backs of lables over and over. I need stories, anytype of stories. I crave after them like a junkie. its the reason i joined this board. Interesting stories, that i read while i eat, infront of the computer. Also, i need audio books while i am driving, or painting, or working out …the list goes on and on. i need to read before i can fall asleep. Me and my boyfriend lay together side by side in bed, long into the early morning hours, our feet or shoulders touching, reading our respective books. one of us will occasionally throw out a quote or something, then back to the deep silence of our stories. i live attatched to my books, so much so that i didnt even think of this as being considered a quirk until i read eq’s post. Once, i got into an accident and, in a neck brace and back board on the way to the hospital, i insisted that the ambulance tech tell me a story. He didnt want to, but i was adamant about his telling me. I read all my required college books within the first two weeks i get them, i pull over when i get fast food to read in my car. I’ve re read every book in my library at least four times, some of them six or seven. my life is strung together in a series of stories. This is one dependancy i cant get enough of.

280

Here are my habits with regards to placement of items in pockets:

At all times, I have a wallet in my right rear pocket.

My right front pocket always contains my keys, one stick of chapstick, one bottle of contact lens rewetting drops, and a pen. The pen is always a pilot G2, blue or black ink, clipped on the pocket (poor wording, I know… it looks like a pager, you know what I mean.)

My left pocket always contains one pack of eclipse gum, and that is all. Nothing else ever goes in my left pocket.

Like a lot of posters, I usually eat meals one item at a time, and I look around a lot when I’m walking. I guess I’m afraid that if I look at anything too long, it will seem like I’m staring, and that would be creepier than the nervous looking-around thing.