All The Weirdness That's Fit To Blog

So once again I needed to disappear from the Inner-Nets and email. Thank you all for continuing to read despite my complete inability to return the commenting favor. I’ve been reading but when I go to type, I’m frozen trying to get out sentences about all the cute projects I’ve been seeing out there. I know this is decidedly lame, but to anyone who has commented and not heard back from me, I’m sorry for being oh-so-terribly rude.

Anyway, I’m trying again to get back in the swing o’ things. Marisa tagged me for the 6 Weird Things meme and I’ve been eeking out this list over days. I’ve been able to keep it to six, although I’m sure my mother would be happy to leave a list of all my quirks in the commens.

1. Funny that one of Marisa’s weirdnesses is a monkey issue. Personally, I can’t handle bananas. I gag at the taste, the smell, even the sight of them. I’ve actually had to have students eat their treats in the hallway because I can’t stand to watch someone eat a banana. And let’s not bring up the time I was on a long antique-hunting road trip in a cramped van when one of the ladies decided she needed a banana. At the time I was too shy and polite to ask her not to eat it so I sat in the back and suffered. Then I had to sit for miles with the stinking peel in the garbage. I’ve changed my ways and much more forceful about the anti-banana policy.

2. I have weird thumbs. They are short, flat and smooshed at the end, like little frog sucker feet rather than human digits. They’re an inheritance from my grandfather and I’ve had people tell me they are a birth defect which is a sign of either mental retardation or mental giftedness. All I know is that hitch-hiking won’t be an option for me because they bend so far backwards, passing drivers won’t see my plea for a ride.

3. This may not be weird for the rural readers, but most of my city slicker friends find it quite odd that I went to elementary school with fewer than ten kids in each grade. I think there were six of us and only one boy. Two grades were generally combined in a single classroom so the teacher would bounce between giving a science lesson to third graders and history to fourth graders. I was a shy, dorky little kid who didn’t really get along with the others so the set-up gave me lots of time to get lost in books. Even the teachers let me do my own thing for the most part, probably why I’m a bit of a bookworm, loner now

4. I have absolutely zero tolerance for the distraction of television or the radio. If there’s a TV on in a restaurant, I have to watch it. Friends know that when we go out, I have to be positioned so that I can’t see a screen if they want me to participate in the conversation. I once was on a date with a total hottie who deserved to stared at appreciatively, but I was unable to adjust my bar stool accordingly. He even had to ask me, “Do you really like watching wrestling?” My eloquent reply, “Uh, no. Do you?” Hottie: “No, I don’t particularly enjoy it but you’re staring so intently, I thought you were a big fan.” Oops. (Thank goodness my appreciation of half nelsons did not interfere with getting a second date… although I think that whole dork thing mentioned above interfered with getting a third date!)

5. I also have this thing where I have to walk in step to the radio. Too many years of marching band, I think. And let’s not even get into aerobics teachers who can’t do routines to the beat. I seriously have to leave the class. It’s just better for everyone involved when I can sweat in time.

6. Although I am a complete packrat, I get a great deal of pleasure from throwing things away. When I get to the end of the shampoo bottle, I feel as if I’ve accomplished terrific and wonderful things. You’ve got to find your moments of pride where you can, right?

I think I’ve seen most of you play on this one so I’m not sure there’s anyone to tag. I’ll do some investigating in your archives and tag those who’ve yet to share their psychosis!