Odd little habits you have

In My Humble Opinion
281

Wallets and asphalt pavements.
If I walk down an asphalt pavement and come across a little line of freshly laid asphalt, y’know where telephone companies etc lay a cable and then lay some fresh asphalt, I always have to walk along that line. I sometimes find myself veering into someones path because subconciously I’ve been following a little strip of new asphalt.

The cards in my wallet have to be in a precise order or I think I’ve lost them, and I never think that if they’re in a different order then they’re just somewhere else in the wallet they must be lost.
The order has to be; Books of stamps, bus tickets etc
Business cards, lists of phone nos etc
Organ donor card.
Cash card.
Supermarket loyalty card.
Student card.
Isic card.
Phone card.
Video rental card.
This must never change.

282

Ok, first of all, I have to admit to some of your habits…

reading in the toilet
seperating my food and eating each one at a time
sorting my money
counting things
chewing on things
although i don’t sit in the shower often, if i feel sick or have taken some medicine that makes me dizzy, i’ll do so, and it’s not that weird, although if i saw my boyfriend doing that, i’d automatically assume he was sick
talking to inanimate objects, and making them have genders
i have the problem with sleeping with the closet door shut, it has to be shut and i have to be covered, at least my shoulders and my hindquarters do.
now for my special list:

  1. every night when i get home from work, i MUST have the same pattern of pet care.
    boyf immediately takes dog out to potty while i fix dog’s food and take it to them, while they are outside, I fix the cat some food and water and pet him for a bit, when the dog comes in after doing his business i play ball or tug with him.

this allows me to pay equal attention to both pets and feed and water them. (thank goodness for my boyf!!)

  1. when i’m driving i tend to make car noises and narrate. i do this less now, my boyf found it hilarious and i couldn’t figure out what he was laughing at b/c i didn’t really think about doing it. I’d just be driving down the road “vroom vroom, honk. outta the way buddy. honk, oh sure slow down, red car on the left. rrrrmmmmmm. vroom.”
    ok so it’s hilarious!

  2. i eat really strange foods, and i’ll go through times where i don’t want to eat anything except one food. like i’ll only eat hamburgers and french fries, or i;ll only eat noodle soup or something like that, this has gone on for weeks before

  3. i hate to have the shower curtain closed, even though it dries better that way, i need to be able to see into the bathtub. paranoia, anyone??

  4. everynight after i watch tv or a movie, i have to watch another one, there are several that i can watch right before bed, but just anything won’t suffice, some of the good ones are: toy story 2, not 1; The Princess Bride; any little kids tv show, like smurfs or the brady bunch or something; Overboard… this drives my boyfriend crazy, but i have to watch one of these if we are going to sleep after watching something else

  5. when i’m bored, i have to write, but i dont’ neccesarily write sentences, i love to just sign my name or other peoples names over and over.

  6. when i read, that’s all i do. people love to talk to me while i read and i just ignore them, for some odd reason this seems to hurt their feelings, so sometimes, when they start to chat i will say “READING” just in case they hadn’t noticed. this doesn’t seem to stop them although it startles people outside my family and hurts my boyfriends feelings.

  7. unlike most people who have a “side of the bed” i MUST switch sides every so often, i guess it’s the whole sense of balancing out

283

Three things come to mind right off:

  1. Eat all chocolate off of a Milky Way before eating the rest of the candy bar. My mother just shakes her head because her 28-year-old daughter still does this.

  2. I too tap the top of pop cans before opening them. I have never had a can fizz all over when I opened it, but whether that is do to the fact that I don’t shake them, or the tapping, I will never know.

  3. I haven’t seen this mentioned, but I bet it is a common one. I cannot give a phone number verbally without either using my finger to hit imaginary buttons, or actually looking at a key pad.

284

Man . . all you people are weird . . .

Me, I just bite my toenails . . .

:smiley:

285

At last! I can live with myself now, mostly.
Still have issues during Ramadan.

May I suggest my method, grasp firmly in your fingers a coin or a key and touch it first to metal. No shock whatsoever and you get to watch the spark.
I cannot turn around in a circle. I could but I don’t. For instance if I’m walking down a hall and go into a room before continuing down the hall I have to manuver within the room without completing more than a full circle when I exit and continue down the hall.

The doctors say I’m getting much better now.

…

286

I do a lot of things that people have already said so I’ll share the things I haven’t seen.

-If I’m going to be using somebody else’s computer I have to CTRL-ALT-DELETE and shut down all the progams that I’m not going to need because wasted memory pisses me off.
-I constantly tap my feet like I’m using the double-bass pedal on a drum-set sometimes I’ll add cymbals and the other
drums if I’m really bored, the weird thing is, I play guitar
and I suck at the drums, I guess I just wish I could play them that badly.
-I tap on things with my fingers as if I’m playing guitar.
-I always wear a T-shirt under whatever shirt I’m wearing no matter how hot it is.
-I avoid eating breakfast whenever possible.
-I love to do things in unison with other people. Like breathing, walking, smoking(I can’t stand if someone is smoking and I’m not, and I usually take a drag whenever they do, same for drinking too.)
-I’ve NEVER worn my wallet with the chain on the left side of my body EVER.
-I hate spending money but I love to buy things.
-I have to listen to music whenever possible, sometimes even if it’s music I don’t particularly care for.
-I refuse to play on a guitar if it’s out of tune and I can’t tune it.
-I always have to be the BEST at everything but if someone beats me I tell myself that it doesn’t matter because whatever we were competing at wasn’t important.
-I hate not finishing what I start but I have to go to sleep if I’m gonna wake up for school tomarrow.

287

Quirks I can think of:

– Air Drumming (I like to play drums but don’t have a set, it keeps me in practice)
– Watch always in the front left pocket, wallet always in the right rear with bills organized small ones in front, big ones in back (facing the same way, of course)
– Sandwiches have to be made a certain way (from top to bottom) : bread, mustard, lettuce, cheese, meat, mustard, bread. Stems from work making sandwiches, I guess.
– Every time I read a block of text on the internet, I do a triple-left-click so it highlights it and makes it stand out…this one drives people crazy that read over my shoulder

^zertron

288

Brothers and sisters-we’ve found each other!! Thank you all for sharing, and for making me realize that I’m not so strange.
I’ve learned to control some of my “odd little habits”…thank goodness. I used to play little games with myself, all with major consequences-ex. if I don’t make it through the traffic light up ahead, I won’t have a good day. I’ve finally learned that the two have nothing to do with each other.
Fear not, though. I’ve got enough quirks to fill a book!!
I, too, will constantly “test” a hurt area, to see if it still hurts. At any given time, I will have a spot in my mouth that I will gnaw on. It will hurt, but a good hurt if that makes sense to anyone else.
I tend to give feelings to inanimate objects, and worry constantly if they are happy or lonely. Started in childhood-dolls and stuffed animals would need to be grouped together for companionship. Similar animals would need to stick together. Non-compatible species would be separated. Weaker animals especially need to be grouped together, for defense against predators.
I brush my teeth in the shower, but I never thought that was weird. More of a convenience. Oh, and if the mood strikes, I’ll take a seat.
I will not, can not drink out of a hard plastic cup. It reminds me of the bathroom cup, and that always seems to be dirty.
I can’t drink until all food has been chewed and swallowed. My SO drives me crazy-he can take a slug of water/juice/soda with a full mouth of food. Yuck!
I tend to make rhythms of things in my head. My footsteps, the sound of rain on the roof, a train clanking on the tracks by my house.
Everything must be just so before going to sleep-dishes clean, closet doors closed, etc.
When I was younger, I saw a movie where evil warlocks would invade a persons home while they were sleeping, snip a lock of hair and make a voodoo doll of their victim. As a result of that, I sleep with my long hair wrapped under my shoulder. Just to be safe. Oh, and no limbs can extend over the edge of the bed.
Just some quirks that come to mind immediately…

289

Sitting here reading all of your quirks, I am reminded of a few zillion freakish things I do. Here are just a few:

-After reading something on a billboard or sign, I’ll read it again, backwards, just to see what it sounds like. We have a store called Uptons – backwards, it sounds like “snot poo”. I laughed for hours :slight_smile:

-When I’m writing a casual note to a friend, I’ll involuntarily start writing in Spanish (even though I have absolutely no Hispanic descent). So the note ends up kinda like this: “So what are you doing this weekend? I wanna go to that party, pero no pienso que es posible.”

-I’m a teenager, so of course I’m self-conscious around my peers, but I may take it a bit too far. If I have bird “stuff” on my car, I feel inferior to all other “clean-car” drivers until the bird stuff is gone. I feel like the crap makes me a peasant on the road and I should bow my head in shame.

-If I’m making a sandwich, I go crazy if the whole slice of bread isn’t covered by peanut butter, or meat, or whatever. I’ll spend 5 extra minutes cutting miniscule pieces of tomato just to fill in the little spaces. Stemming from the coverage issue, there can’t be any loose ends outside of the sandwich. Before I take the first bite, I have to go around the sandwich and trim off any excess meat or lettuce.

-I possess a rare talent: I can hum (by memory) the sequence of tones of about 35 phone numbers. It probably comes from my habit of humming them as I dial them.

-I sympathize with “They Call Me Sneeze” - I, too, have to be fair to ALL objects, animate or not. I eat my meals equally - none of this unfair one-food-at-a-time business. I take a bite of each thing until there’s one bite left of everything. This is the grand finale of the meal, where I eat all of the last bites together. EQUALITY!!! :smiley:

-I have sort of a tweezer fetish… I will use any excuse to use tweezers. Piece of paper on the floor? Get the tweezers to pick it up! Speck of food or dirt on my hand? Tweezers!!! (It makes me feel like a forensic investigator or something and I should have little Ziploc bags for my findings.) :slight_smile:

-I never ever ever sleep with my back to the bedroom door. It would drive me insane! I’ll sacrifice my comfort and, therefore, a good night’s sleep, just to make sure I face the door.

-I have a horrible habit of gently grinding my teeth along with the words when someone is talking to me (if I know what they’re going to say). Or if there’s a good song on the radio, sometimes I’ll do the grinding thing. It’s like lip-synching for people too lazy to move their lips.

-When filling up the bathtub, taking a shower, or washing my hands, I ALWAYS have to turn the cold water off first. I’d rather by scalded by hot water than have the shocking feel of cold.

-This isn’t really a habit, but more of a weird treat I sometimes have. Go to Mickey D’s and get a milkshake (preferably strawberry for this) and some fries. Push one fry into the straw, take a sip of the milkshake, then use your teeth to get the fry out and eat it. It’s the perfect combination of sweetness and saltiness.

I expect to get many, many replies to these… Or at least maybe some “you’re weird, go away” e-mails. In any case, those are my habits! :stuck_out_tongue:

290

Wow, what a great thread, this is like Freak Confession. I have to contribute.

My only weird eating habit is that, unless I’m -really- thirsty, eating very dry food, etc, I always save my drink, all of it, until I’m done eating.

If I’m not wearing shoes, I walk on the balls of my feet. Heel never touches the floor. I tend to half-bounce and semi-sprint around, too…it’s impossible for me to walk normally unless I have shoes on. I feel weird running, like it’s “not right” if I have shoes on or not. I think my body wants to be quadruped :smiley:

I’d rather walk in grass next to the sidewalk, than on the sidewalk. This is less compulsive, though, since I feel rude walking in places with worn-down sickly grass that can’t handle the traffic.

I have this constant, irresistable urge to chew, nibble, gnaw, or just drool on something…lip, cheek, shirt collar, pen, cup, anything. It’s especially bad if I’m thinking about something at the time, particularly anything technical. If my brain’s going, I have to have something in my mouth.

I can’t sleep without weight on my chest. The only time I can sleep in any position but on my stomach, is while snuggling with someone else providing said weight. Speaking of weird sleeping habits, I too must have a blanket or sheet covering me at least from lower back to thighs, and that little only when it’s really hot.

My joints must be popped/cracked, or they feel stiff. Fingers, neck, lower back and ankles, in order of frequency and priority. It really freaks some people out that my back and neck can be popped, audibly, and not only does it not hurt, but feels better :slight_smile:

I can’t sit upright, in anything, I must slouch on my tailbone, with legs either stretched, or preferably tucked up. This makes me feel vaguely weird in a car, while playing flight sims with my rudder pedals, etc, where I -have- to sit upright. The only exception to this: to contently sit upright, I must have my legs tucked under me (cross-legged, yoga, whichever)

I also do the “Ow!” thing when bonking into anything that makes a noise, if it hurts or not. I know where this habit came from, it was cultivated by my parents. If I bonked into something enough to make a decent noise, I would get griped at – UNLESS I got hurt in the process. Eventually the “Ow!” became self-defense reflex, and used often since bouncing around on the balls of your feet makes for frequent collisions with doorframes, furniture, wall corners, etc. I’m used to it :smiley:

And now for my TMI: I hate body hair. Head hair, I love – I’m quite content with my “mane”, which lives pulled back in a ponytail past my shoulder blades. Eyebrows I can live with. ALL other body hair bugs me - arm, leg, facial, chest, pubic, whatever – I hate it! I think it’s ugly and uncomfortable. If I could wave a magic wand and be rid of it forever, once and for all, I would gladly do so.

Oh, and I talk to myself. Constantly. I rehearse conversations, playing both sides…backing up, taking different tacks, etc. Sometimes I’m just thinking out loud. I’ve done it for so long, and do it so much, that I can’t understand when people say that it’s “weird” or “creepy”. What, you don’t do it? :slight_smile:

I think that’s enough of my oddities for now…

291

I have so many weird little habits, but I wont name them all, it would take way to long. The main things that do are:

1.)If I walk past anything shiny, I have to look at my self in it. I then check my posture and if it isn’t perfect, I fix it.
2.) I pick at my lip. Only the bottom one. I have tried many techniques to break myself of this habit, keeping my nails short, chapstick, I have even tried that nasty stuff you put on your nails so they taste bad, but nothing works.
3.) I have to fold all my clothes perfectly and in a certain way. If there are wrinkles, I start over. I even fold my underwear. My brother and I got into a very long disscussion once about the proper way to fold underwear. This habit is particularily wierd becuase otherwise I really don’t care about my laundry, I don’t even seperate lights from darks.
4.) I also eat all of one thing before I move onto the next, I never thought of that as wierd though. I thought everyone did it.
5.) I can’t sit properly in a chair. Even when I am in a restuarant, I end up sitting cross legged under the table. I just can get comfortable otherwise. It’s a good thing i never go to fancy restuarants.
6.) My Sisters and I are triplets, and I don’t feel comfortable walking with them unless we are in order. Oldest, Middle, Youngest. That one really bugs my sisters though, becuase they hate walking in order(they think it draws more attention to us.)

That’s all I am going to mention right now, Looking at this, I am a REALLY wierd person. Hey I’m unique, Yeah!

292

I also never finish a can/bottle whatever. I think this stems from my best friend in 3rd grade telling me that by the time there was only a little bit of soda left in the can, its mostly all backwash.

I always flip my lucky. (For non-smokers: This is the act of pulling out a cigarette and flipping it upside down in the pack.) I always pull out the 4th and 5th cigarette in the front of the pack right after its opened, then I put the 4th one back and smoke the fifth one. I always smoke my lucky last (of course.)

I also flip other people’s luckies if they dont.

I like to sing in my car and watch my reflection in the rear-view mirror… like Im in a video. =) I also like when you can hit the certain reflection where you can faintly see your mouth where your forehead is. It just feels so… Peter Gabriel. I will also apply lipstick before driving somewhere, just so my reflection looks cooler.

I have a real problem not pulling my food apart. I like to eat the corn stuff off the corn dog first, I like to eat the cheese off of the pizza (after any toppings of course… and before I eat the sauce and then the soggy part of the bread and then the bottom of the crust and then the crust itself… doesnt everyone?).

I cant stand to leave blemishes alone. I will actively try not to do this… but if I sit in front of my computer for too long, I will absent-mindedly pick at any blemish I can find.

I will work myself into a tizzy if I think theres something on my nose and Im around other people. I cant just… pick it and find out… but I cant just leave it there, if theres something there… So I generally jut breathe in sharply through my nose then quit breathing until I can nonchalantly check.

I peel off my toenails after I shower. I find it to be alot more effective than clipping them.

I chew on my bottom lip. Alot. More than is necessary.

If I see someone smoking in their car, I automatically feel the need to light up as well.

I become very unhappy whenever I cant space my feet to hit one foot per square in the sidewalk.

I cant stand to keep things organized. It drive me nuts. I’ll organize things for a week on the outside… and then I just have to lose/break/mangle stuff. The worst example of this is my car always having junk in it and my checkbook never being balanced.

I feel bad when I use utensils to eat red meat. I have a pulling urge to just tear at it with my hands and be done with it.

And I grind my teeth in my sleep something awful… so much so that I’ll have nightmares of my jaw shattering.

293

Wow. I am so glad other people do things like eat Tic Tacs
in twos (NEVER 1 or 3!).

I also have to balance my body. Even pain. If I bruise my right knee, I’ll lightly knock
my left knee into something so they feel similar.

I absolutely HATE to play gin and have people lay down
sets of cards that arent alternating by color.

Whenever I look at a magazine I pick something on
every page I’d most like to have. But it gets tricky
because I HAVE to choose something and wear
it once. So if a page is full of ugly clothes I start
looking to cheat, like I’ll take the nail polish the model
is wearing. Or her hairspray.

Same with cars. On an errand I’ll look at cars going by
and get to pick the one I want.

294

I have a habit of, when walking over a surface marked with lines, trying to step over lines equally with each foot. It drives me nuts, but I can’t stop! I’ll semi-sub-conciously keep track and shift my stride to keep it all evened out, as if stepping over the lines will make one foot tireder than the other… This happens mostly on sidewalks or floors with large tiles (several feet across).

295

Lessee…

I can’t sleep unless computer screen light is off.

I ride my bike with only my right buttcheek at the tip of the saddle.

I have to check if barn door is open (and we’re not talking about countryside here.) I’m starting to feel that people think I’m fondling myself.

I usually don’t care in which order I eat foods, but not when having sausage and fries. Fries first, then sausage. When there’s only one bit of sausage left at the end of fork, I first peel of the ‘skin’ with my teeth, and then the meat.

296

Posted by Alibi: “I am so obsessed with my walls.”

by any chance, would your walls be padded?

what do I do… I pick my nose alot… I also make sucking noises with my teeth after I eat.

when I take a shot of tequila I have to put the salt on my left wrist, and hold the lime between my left thumb & forefinger

I can’t think of anything else.

297

That should read “Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry,”

Sorry, couldn’t let that one go…

Some of mine:

*I always fold kitchen towels into nice neat squares (over and over again…).
*I always put the lid down before I flush (Fecal plume - yuck!)
*Discard deck of cards must be kept in a nice neat pile

298

There are other people who sit in the shower? Makes me feel like I’m not the laziest person in the world.
Okay, this sounds really creepy, but if I see someone walking ahead of me (asuming they’re going in the same direction) I have to tail gate them. Most people start going faster or slower, but I keep pace. I thought this was really weird but alot of my friends do it to.
I’m an insomniac, that’s a pretty weird habbit.
I can’t smoke a cigarette below 3/8 of an inch to the filter.
I write letters to people in my head when walking. I never write them on paper, more of a ‘what if…’ kind of thing.
I don’t wear shirts with logo’s or symbols.
I can’t eat noodles. (I’m not alergic, I just start thinking of worms when I’m eating and almost puke every time.)

299

Great thread! Who needs therapy?

Tzel & Truncated, God, I thought I was the only one!

Car Games I never told:

-Jumping over stripes of light and dark. Must have enough space to land, though, otherwise you lose one life. Had three, of course. Also three turbo boost options.

-If there was an open window, I’d stick my hand out and make a plane (surreptiously) that would go up and down depending on the angle and windspeed!

-If I was in a bus, I’d mentally be running and jumping along the guardrail. You’d have to time your mental leap to clear the sign posts, signal reflectors, guard rail shifts!

-Same as above, but must stay on (any) painted line. No shifting till you have to, for some reason. Lots of variations–swerving among the trees and bushes, etc…

Too many arcade games when I was young? Ok, non travel related stuff.

-Everyone has had a tune in their head. But am I weird for only noticing when the chorus kicks in? I’ll be like “Whoa, they’ve been playing for a while”. Also, sometime two tunes silmultaneously.

-Had a stretch where everything I thought was “said outloud” in my mind.

-When in the bathroom, if the tiles are regular, I’ll envision figures the same way you might see things in a cloud. Or Math patterns like squares, fibonnaci sequences. If irregular, I will ponder until I “uncover” the pattern.

-AOS

300

-If it echos, it needs to be echoing something. You don’t know weird looks until you see how people react when you whistle in a crowded Subway Tunnel.

-If I’m walking down that tunnel, somehow, the whistled tune will match my gait. If it doesn’t, the tune changes till it does.

-If I don’t have the loudest footsteps, I have a compulsion to whistle in tune with whomever does. Had to put the kibosh on this, too many women wearing heels got unnerved by it. :slight_smile: Can you picture them walking faster, and “Proud Mary” keeping pace! Yeesh.

Oh well, there’s always the shower-sitters to keep me on the normal side of the curve. Do you guys stand up in the bath?