annoying personal quirks

[kylerexpop]

i thought of this only because i decided i was going to read in bed and wanted a big glass of ice water, and AS USUAL when i went to take a few ice cubes out of my ice tray, i dropped an ice cube on the floor, rendering it completely useless and good only for melting in the sink or thrown at my nasty neighbor's house.

and the problem is i ALWAYS drop one ice cube. whether i'm prepared for it to happen or not. how bizarre!

is that a quirk? it's certainly not a personality trait. i'm not entirely sure how it's classified, actually. but i felt like sharing and seeing if anyone else has anything like this in their life.

[StarOpal]

I kill watches. Seriously.

I don't even bother to wear them anymore because it's just a waste of money. I've tried all kinds, it's always the same. You can replace the batteries, but it doesn't fix it. Some sort of bio-magnetic thing.

That's my annoying quirk.

[blinkfan]

I refuse to eat any seafood of anykind.

[Ms. Jellybean]

If I touch something with one hand or arm (usually walking down stairs and holding the rail, or brushing against a wall), I feel an insatiable need to do the same thing with the other hand/arm. I'm better about it, but up until a couple of years ago it was terrible.

Of course, I've been told that could be a sign of OCD. But I'm not sure.

And another fun one is that I absolutely CAN NOT spell something wrong or even (in most cases) abbreviate words... while taking notes. Bad quirk, man. It'll kill me in college, I can tell.

[Genetic Mishap]

I sneeze really loudly.

[Spiderdancer]

a. I can't stop losing my cell phone. I've left it in the house, the car, my workplace, I dropped one in a bucket of water once, and once I ran over one with a truck.

b. I tend to ask permission before touching anyone I know other than parents or siblings.

This is because I hate being touched by people I'm not close to. In particular I'm thinking of this one type of female who absolutely cannot say hello without giving you a squeeze, even if your stiff posture and stiffer expression clearly indicate you don't like it.

[sarahbot]

Apparently I say please and thank you a lot. A lot. As in beginning and ending every request with the word 'please'. Apparently it's a bit surprising for some.

I don't like having my neck touched at all. I don't even like feeling myself toucing it, or having my hair touch it a lot. (I now have short hair, thank goodness.) And I don't wear short necklaces. I also don't like having my forearms covered. It just bothers me. Loose sleeves are okay, but I really wish I could wear half- or quarter-length sleeves year round.

[Al]

I really dislike wearing shirts. Dress-ups, button-downs, tee-shirts, tank tops- they all bug me. When I get home from work, all shirt buttons are immediately undone and usually within an hour the shirt in question is off entirely and hung up in my room just in case I get cold during the rest of the day. Throughout the winter months, I'm often yelled at for making other people in the house feel cold.

I feel pretty certain I have OCPD (OCD's little brother). I count the number of footfalls in each sidewalk square. I have a tendancy to run my hands over any nearby surface. I trace simple pictures on my leg or in my palm with a forefinger (a star, a house, a tree) and they always end on an even number. I don't like climbing to the top of a flight of stairs and ending on my left foot. A million little things like that.

I also can't stop correcting other people on small, stupid things. Example:
Me: I always know when I have to get a haircut because this little ringlet falls down on my forehead.
Cute Single Girl In the Office: Oh, just like Superman.
Me: Well, Superman's is in the center of the forehead and mine is really over more by the right side...
Cute Single Girl's eyes glaze over and smiles fades from her lips
Me: ...well...err...right. Kinda.

Al

[Head Mutant]

I think one of my worst quirks is that I simply cannot look at people in the eye while talking to them. Listening, yes. But any lengthy conversation and I'm looking all over the place or at my hands. I know it makes me look insecure or as if I'm distracted, but I honestly can't stop doing it.

[PoolMan]

Isn't that funny... I have the exact opposite problem (if you want to call it that). I look people square in the left eye at all times when I talk to them. Never the right. I don't do the "look back and forth between eyes thing" when I talk to people. Just the left.

Little known fact: Justin will also NEVER smile properly for photographs. I can't believe he didn't do a choking face or mime climbing a ladder at his wedding.

I am told I shut jars and bottles with the strength of a demigod. No matter how I concentrate on shutting them too tight, I always seem to close them such that I can't easily get them back open (and if *I* can't open 'em, you can guess how amused my wife is at this habit).

[dajaymann]

blinkfan said:

I refuse to eat any seafood of anykind.

This. It's even better that my dad is a part-time fisherman. With the shrimp boat and everything.

I'm told I have a strange sense of sarcastic humor, and often my wife tells me that I'm not funny when I try to exercise this strange sense of sarcastic humor. Apparently, it's just not appropriate for all occasions.

[Hucklebubba]

Sign me up for mild & manageable OCD.

If I'm walking around campus with the ol' iPod going, or in my car listening to the radio, I'll make bets with myself as to whether or not I can walk/drive past a certain bit of scenery before the current song reaches a particular lyric.

I avoid stepping on sidewalk cracks, not for the sake of avoiding maternal spinal injury, but simply because I regard sidewalk crack avoidance as being a worthy endeavor in and of itself.

I tend to do things in fours, or multiples thereof. That's probably the weirdest one.

[PoolMan]

hucklebubba said:

I tend to do things in fours, or multiples thereof. That's probably the weirdest one.

Are you the musical type, Bubba? When I first took up music, I couldn't STOP with the fours, but I eventually grew out of it (despite still being a very active musician... must have finally learned how to count in 3/4 time...)

I used to compulsively translate everything I said into French in my head. That actually turned out to be useful, as I can still speak the language reasonably well today, but it used to aggravate me no end.

[Ms. Jellybean]

dajaymann said:

This. It's even better that my dad is a part-time fisherman. With the shrimp boat and everything.

Heh heh. If you hadn't already told me of your Cape Fear-region origins, I'd have guessed it right here.

And to Poolman regarding the music thing: It's crazy. It's worse being in marching band, because then you have this thing where you just have to start walking with your left foot. And end on your right. But thankfully, I've grow out of that, too...

[Hucklebubba]

poolman said:

Are you the musical type, Bubba? When I first took up music, I couldn't STOP with the fours, but I eventually grew out of it (despite still being a very active musician... must have finally learned how to count in 3/4 time...)

I do consider myself to be of a somewhat music-y persuasion, though I don't actually play anything. And I used to be in marching band, but that was many moons ago, and the whole "fours" thing is a comparatively recent development.

In other quirk news: When I encounter a word that interests me--generally during lecture--I'll "air type" it to determine which hand has more letters owed to it when typing said word. Words that are evenly split are worth double points. And college is incredibly tedious.

Tedious--one more on the left.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious--two more on the left, assuming I spelled it correctly.