What things that make you a little different have you been doing forever?

I’ve been sleeping on a floormat with no pillow for over 30 years.

I do the same. Seems natural to me.

I also strike a match away from me, rather than towards me. It’s an affection I picked up from my surroundings some 20-odd years ago, and I’ve kept it up. Although I probably only strike a dozen matches in the course of a year.

Also, I wear chainmail to the beach.

My socks rarely match.

There are people who strike matches towards them? :confused: I was taught to always go away, in case you “slipped” the flaming match would fly away from you, not towards you. (But then again, my dad has been a firefighter my entire life, so I have a lot of habits engrained into me that aren’t normal.)

I am also a right-handed person who wears a watch (the rare times I wear one) on my right wrist. People have asked me why it doesn’t interfere with my writing, nad it’s because I also hold my pen/pencil the wrong way. I have my ring, middle, and index fingers all on one side and my thumb pushing back on the other side.

I also “squeegee” myself before toweling off. This stems from being a guy with hairy legs that trap a lot of water, and if I don’t do that, then my towel doesn’t have enough absorbancy to get me as dry as I like.

I don’t like gold, either. Granted, I have one piece of jewlery, a class ring I don’t really wear anymore, but if I ever get married, my band will be silver or platinum. Gold just looks ugly to me.

I also almost always take off my shoes when entering a home, but this is a very northeastern US thing to do, because if you don’t take off your shoes, you track snow (which then melts to water), sand, and mud all over the place. How do you savages live without taking off your shoes?!

The money in my wallet HAS to be in the right order (largest bills in back) and the face has to be facing me. I’m not so anal that I have to organize it when I get my change and hold up the whole line, though. I just put it all in my pocket then put it in my wallet in my car, or when I get home.

I haven’t driven a car except twice in 1974 or 1975. I used to live in a place where the public transit was sufficiently good that I didn’t need to drive anywhere, so I never learned or took the test or anything. I couldn’t have afforded a car or its expenses anyway, so it’s always been kinda moot. My wife bought a new car a couple of years ago, and I help to pay for it. When I think of all the money I’ve saved us by not having a car of my own, it doesn’t seem so weird after all.

:dubious: Are you me? I used to wear those shoes. And everything else goes as well.

Although I gave up the shoes in favour* of going barefoot as often as possible. Even in the snow. Which seems to upset people.

I’m sure there are more as soon as I can think of them.

*Oh yeah and using British spelling and pronunciation even though I’m not…but I’m trying to become …British that is. So I’m working on it. (Cheers.)

Because they’re just so comfortable *and * practical, I’ve worn denim overalls regularly since I was about four years old, through school, college, and many of the desk jobs I’ve had. I’m a Key man.

Oh, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve been heard, “Hey, Farmer (Realname)!” It never gets old.

Actually, it got old about 25 years ago.

I’ve written in a diary every day since my eighth birthday. I still have them all.

They’ll get my diaries when they pry them from my cold dead hands.

I wear four watches. Two on my left arm and two on my right.

When I read not only do my lips move, but I read aloud . . . when I’m alone. I like to hear the words as well as see them.

Also, I tend fantasize pretty much all the time I’m not either working, reading or talking. Like Fern Forest I’m rather Mitty-esque. My fantasy life has always been better than my real one. Sad, ain’t it.

I never wear long pants, always shorts. I own a landscaping business here in southern California, but our early morning winter temperatures are sometimes in the high 30’s (Not exactly balmy). I just can’t imagine having to work in long pants. I don’t think I could bend my legs enough.

I’ve never worn a ring on my fingers. It seems like it would be so uncomfortable. I told my wife that wearing a ring had nothing to do not cheating and that women are not going to stay away from someone just because they are wearing what appears to be a wedding ring.

I haven’t had a drink for almost 40 years. After 3 cans of Old English 800 at age 14, I haven’t been able to even smell alcohol without my stomach turning.

I never wash my trucks, but they don’t get muddy or really dirty anyway. I think its a waste of water. Here in southern California our tap water travels hundreds of miles to get here either from northern California or the Colorado river, so how can people use it to wash their vehicles with?

I actually use my treadmill.

I hate growing plants in my yard that are easy to grow. My wife insists on growing some “normal” plants, but I like growing everything from bananas and papayas to flowering trees that supposedly only grow in the tropics. And they do well if you know how to take care of them.

I never have bare legs. If I’m wearing a skirt, I wear stockings. I don’t wear shorts.
I also hold my hand weird when I write, and I don’t write in cursive.
I wear braids. They go in and out as far as popularity, and the ones I wear these days tend to be an updated edgier version (that is, not the pippi longstocking pigtails I used to wear) but my favorite hairstyles still involve some braiding. My classmates used to call me “pippi” all the time. I hated it, but wore braids anyway.

I make up stories in my head and fantasize all the time. When I was little, I somehow developed the notion that if I narrated the stories/fantasies in the first person instead of the third person, I’d forget I was only fantasizing and think the stories were real. Out of habit, I still fantasize/make up stories in the third person if I’m doing it in my head.

I also notice how people smell when I first meet them, and if they don’t smell right, I might avoid them or, in a few rare cases (if they smell really off), I might not like them. I try to be objective - a person’s smell isn’t a person’s personality. But if they smell, for example, like face grease as one of my friends does, I won’t avoid hanging out with them, but I’ll probably avoid getting too close to them or touching them. It’s not something I do overtly or on purpose, but it’s something I’ve always noticed. Good thing I love the way my husband smells, unless he’s sick. Then he smells different. I notice my own smell, too, and since I’ve gotten really heavily pregnant, my own smell has changed, something that’s been driving me nuts. I first noticed it around 7 months. It might just be imaginary, but I smell carmelly and it’s weird. My husband has noticed it, too. He said I used to smell like strawberries, but it changed at some point.

When I lie down to go to sleep at night, I have to be slightly on my side; the leg on the side that is down is fully extended, and the other knee is drawn up to my chest.

My normal way of writing is kind of a cross between printing and cursive. I find it very easy to read, but a lot of people don’t.

I hate writing in pencil, and my pens have to be blue with a broad point. I’ll use a ballpoint pen if I must, but I prefer roller ball pens or fountain pens. I refuse to do crossword puzzles in pencil.

I never tie my shoelaces either (I put them on. I take them off. They pretty much just stay tied. What’s the big deal?) but I don’t double-knot them either, to the best of my knowledge. I just use the standard “bunny-ears” fashion that I learned when I was a lad and never even knew until relatively recently that there was an “adult” way of tying shoes. I have yet to learn just how that is done, but I don’t really feel like changing now. :slight_smile:

All my socks are calf-length. Other socks just don’t feel right.

Except for the gym or swimming, I haven’t worn shorts in two and a half, three years.

Most of my fabric-stuff is black. Didn’t plan it; it just worked out that way. Black pants, black socks, black shoes, black belts, black-banded wristwatch, black sheets… Most of the time I wind up with black pants, a black jacket, and a light-colored shirt of one kind of another.
I like black licorice, too.

There are a few words that I insist on spelling in Commonwealth English (fibre, calibre, lustre, aluminium). All those extra us can go to hell, though.

I sleep with one of those hard buckwheat pillows. Everyone else thinks it’s uncomfortable, but I have a hard time sleeping without it.

I wear long sleeves of one sort or another (shirt or jacket) probably 350+ days out of the year.

I keep my wallet organized biggest-to-smallest.

I have a hell of a time trying to use the word “dishwasher” in English. I always just use it in Cantonese.

I never kid anyone about gray hair, baldness, height or weight.

Almost all my socks are gray.

I can never remember if the color is gray or grey.

Outdoors, I am rarely hatless.

I make no attempt to get a suntan.

In slow-moving traffic, I’ll wave in cars from side streets and parking lots.

I walk a lot, but I never run or jog unless it’s an emergency.

Those things are expensive. For every dollar of change you throw in, you only get about 93 cents back. I recommend paying for things entirely in coins when it gets to that point. Keep it below two or three bucks, and use mostly quarters, otherwise it’s annoying and time consuming.

I can’t order the same thing someone else is ordering at a restaurant. I do break this rule occasionally, but not much.

Ever since I started taking showers, I’ve showered sitting down. It is so incredibly relaxing, like being lazy during a warm rain shower.

I never wear a watch, I’ve never worn any rings. I haven’t worn shorts (outside of swimwear or exercise shorts) in about ten years. I never wear hats.

Putting a little horizontal stroke through 7 and Z, like in Europe.
Being vegetarian.
Avoiding TV.
Wearing kohl.
Always wearing long sleeves. (I broke this rule for the first time a couple weeks ago on a warm day. I just wore a cami as a top. My friend said she was watching my shoulders from across the room and wanted to come over and bite me on them.)
Learning lots of foreign languages. Writing SDMB posts in Greek.
Playing 12-string.