[QUOTE=the chicken of exeter]
Every morning before I put on my socks I have to turn them inside out to make sure there aren’t any earwigs in them. This is because my mother put earwigs in my socks on various April Fool’s Days when i was a child.
[/QUOTE]
HOLY LIVING FUCK!
You’re mother is, bar none, the most evil person who has ever lived. EVER!
Humm - apparently some of these idiosyncracies aren’t that idiosyncratic.
I also do the money thing - denomenations from smallest to largest, heads all facing the same way, old bills first, new bills second.
I also do the shirt thing. I also arrange skirts and pants facing the same way, and by colour. Jackets, Suits, etc, etc.
I think that’s a normal thing to do. Maybe THATS an idiosyncracy. 
I do the hangers-facing-the-same-way thing and the bills-in-smallest(inside)-to-largest(outside) thing. I always thought those were normal.
The only thing I can think of concerns drinking water - I can’t stand drinking water out of a glass (a glass glass that is, not a plastic glass). Sometimes at restaurants it’s ok, but never at home. I’ll use kiddie cups instead of a good glass.
[QUOTE=AskNott]
I’ve been told I tie my shoelaces “backwards.” I think this is because the person who taught me how was in front of me. So, when you teach a child how to tie shoelaces, show her from behind or the side.
When I go to the doctor, I always swipe a couple of the hundreds of promotional pens the drug dealers give doctors. So, most of my pens advertise drugs I don’t know anything about. For example, here’s a fat, padded pen for Avalide®;** I have no idea what Avalide is good for.**
I know that my chances of winning the lottery are “about the same whether I buy a ticket or not” (Liebowitz), but I buy the tickets anyway.
I bought a new phone/answering machine a month ago. I haven’t yet discovered how to get my own voice on the greeting.
When a “reality” show begins on my television, I dive for the remote control to change channels. I get physical discomfort from being in the same room with Survivor or Fear Factor.
[/QUOTE]
(I used to be prescribed Avalide to treat my hypertension.)
One of my many idiosyncracies is that I prefer my drinks of the day to follow this order : milk, fruit juice, caffeinated beverage (usually tea). When deciding on a meal I have to take into consideration which beverage comes next in the sequence. I could elaborate, but I can already envision people backing away from their computers with a :dubious: look on their faces.
[QUOTE=BiblioCat]
If I offer someone a mint, no, I don’t make them take two. That’d be weird. 
The shirt thing… I don’t know. They just get hung up so the front of the shirt faces to the left. I always thought of it as a quirk.
Maybe a little OCD or something. Towels have to be folded a certain way, socks must be folded, not rolled, and clothes are hung according to what it is - pants are all together, shirts are all together, skirts and dresses are all together, and it’s all also grouped by style (work stuff, play stuff, t-shirts, whatever).
When I wash the dishes, I have to do the glasses first, then plates, then bowls, then pots and pans, then other stuff. Silverware is always last.
[/QUOTE]
You are completely normal, because that’s how I do laundry too. And when I do dishes by hand rather than dishwasher, that’s also how I do it. No wonder we’re friends.
When I shower in the morning, I wash my body in the following order:
Chest
Left arm
Left armpit
Right arm
Right armpit
Stomach
Crotch
Buttocks
Right leg
Left left
Then after all that will I shampoo my hair. I never wash my hair first, ever. I do this consistantly EVERY MORNING.
Any other time I’ve seen people shower, they almost always wash their hair first, then the rest of their bodies. I guess I can see the logic in that as they are washing from the head down, but I’ve always done it my way. I guess it comes from when I used to take baths and wash my body first, then finish by washing my hair.
Here’s another one.
When I sit down to eat, I must smell every bit of food and drink that is sitting before me. I don’t make a big deal about it, I just quickly smell that chicken leg before I take that first bite, as well as the milk in my glass before I take that first sip. Call it my unique way of appreciating the food that was prepared for me.
I walk very fast and very often. Sometimes I feel like walking around a bit more to finish a thought, so I take a longer-than-necessary route, which most people find incomprehensible.
I can’t stand driving, walking or running without listening to music, so I carry my Ipod with my at all times.
I grunt a lot. I have a specific grunt expressing frustration, another for disagreement, and one for annoyance. I also gesture a lot with my hands.
I take off my shoes whenever I can. I also wear shorts and flip-flops whenever I can.
I hate sitting down for an extended period of time, and I also hate crowded places. This is why I have always hated church, and I hate going to plays. I like going to movies, but only if they’re ones I am sure will keep me entertained.
I always read books in 25 or 50-page intervals, depending on how challenging the book is. Practically nothing can tear me away from that book before I’m done reading the interval.
When I take a shower in the morning, I invariably want to spend more time in there than I have alotted in my schedule. Therefore, when I’m done washing up, I literally count down from five slowly in my head. When I hit zero, that’s it, I have to turn off the water whether I want to or not. Shower’s over.
Also, to keep from freezing my ass off when I’m finishing a shower, I pull the towel out before the water’s even off and dry off my arms and face while the water is still running. Then I turn it off and dry the rest off.
I also do the “facing money” thing in increasing order. I tend to hand wash dishes and do them as described (glasses, plates, etc…) and the hangers? How else would you hang them?
I always attempt to sit facing a the door when sitting in a public place.
I carry a set amount of change in my pocket when starting my day. A dollar coin, two quarters, a dime, a nickle and four pennies. It isn’t OCD in that it doesn’t bother me to be without or to forget it and I don’t run around to find these if I use them.
I’m into preparedness. I have food, water, batteries and flashlights, truck fuel tank above half, a well stocked pantry, gas in 5 gal. jugs and a generator that I start and let run a bit every few months or so. Living in Florida and having been a Scout I guess I take “Be Prepared” to heart.
I eat my chicken wings and oysters with both hands and have always been of the notion (in many areas of life) that if you don’t get it all over your face, you didn’t do it right.