A couple of years ago, I came to the realization that all of my friends share a quirk that I believe to be rather odd. It’s not an obvious quirk, and really, it’s not so much a trait, as a specific benchmark in measuring a trait.
I tend to hang out with word geeks. People who love the language for itself. Not necessarily in a proper love affair, with accepted grammatical standards, perhaps, but it’s still a love affair. All of my friends have agreed that, were space and money not a consideration, they would love to have a personal home copy of the Oxford English Dictionary. Not the common dictionary. Not even the OED Compact two-volume edition. The full twenty volume extravaganza, in all it’s leather bound glory. Some have even mentioned a desire to have two or more editions of the OED, simply for the pleasure of being able to see how defintions change between editions.
So, what quirks do find that are common among your friends that you don’t think would be represented near as often in the general population?
I have a very strong tendency to be friends with people who are either only children, or the oldest in their families. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I’m a middle, and used to being bossed around.
Not my friends but all my girlfriends: every woman I ever saw even semi-regularly was a dancer–and I don’t mean “liked to” dance but participated in a troupe or organization that performed publicly. Often, I didn’t know this about her until we’d already hooked up, and the school of dance (ballet, cultural, modern, tap) would vary, but every one of them was a dancer in the more stringent definition of the word.
The only one that wasn’t is the one that I married (though she loves to go out dancing, she just never had any formal training at it).
Since I was a child, I have noticed that almost all my friends are, like me, severely myopic (nearsighted). This puzzles the heck outta me, since I don’t think I have consciously chosen people because of their defective vision. When I first met my husband, he was wearing contact lenses, and I didn’t even know that he was nearsighted until I was already quite fond of him.
A few months ago I sat down and made a list of the twenty people to whom I’d been closest in my life. Eighteen of 'em are extremely nearsighted. One is farsighted. One has normal vision. Looks like a pattern to me, but I don’t know the reason behind it.
They are all a lot taller than me. My closest and most regular social group consists of one guy who is 6’6, one 6’3, and two who are about 6’2. I’m 5’8.
They’re all very smart and interested in a variety of things, probably at least one of which overlaps my interests, and they all think I’m funny. Other than that, not a whole lot.
My two closest friends of all time were only children. Almost all of my other friends/girlfriends were oldest children. I’m not an oldest or only child.
Ditto. Well not all of them but a lot of them. I’m 5’ 10" and feel short - there’s at least a half-dozen guys who are well over 6’ tall, and even the shortest of them (6’ 2") is a former defensive lineman so he’s BIG. Last month in Vegas I noticed the enormous club bouncer had to look up at one of my friends.
Practicing or raised Catholic. Only 1 of them are Hispanic, we didn’t meet at church, and I didn’t know their religion before I made friends with them. Maybe the fact I am sort of Catholic too makes me more likely to befriend them?
They are all grumpy. There is nothing worse than a bubbly, happy person who doesn’t understand that not all people are like that, and hasn’t heard of the concept of “not in the mood”. I don’t want to be sitting having some quiet time, when some friend bursts in like Krusty the Klown with a “He-ey HEY KIDS! HONK HONK”
They tend to be very different than me in two regards: 1) most are technical/computer geeks, while I majored in English; 2) they tend to be cynical, sometimes even misanthropic (with one or two exceptions), while I’m a more (though not entirely) optimistic, trusting sort.
I’ve always found that odd, that those would be the kinds of folks I’d gravitate to. Maybe it’s the circumstances under which I met quite a few of them, or the common interests, I dunno.
