Quirky Habits

Upon explaining one of my quirky habits yesterday (#6, to be specific), I was told this topic would make a great blog post, so here I am, blogging about my weird habits.

1. I have to meticulously balance my checkbook for every penny spent...not knowing how much I have in my account at any moment is very foreign to me.

2. I scalp my bread. I take out the soft, doughy inside and only butter what's left of it, the inside of the crust. I think it's because I have an affinity for crunchy textures. The first time I scalped around a group of coworkers during a lunch meeting, they looked at me like I was from another planet. Then they helped themselves to my "scalpings," so peace was restored.

3. Cleaning is uber therapeutic for me: when I'm stressed or have a lot going on, I start cleaning. My favs include vacuuming, dusting, and organizing the closet. It brings me peace.

4. I floss religiously every night. I have a teeth fetish...I can't stand bad teeth.

5. I can't sleep unless all the drawers in my bedroom are closed and the closet door is slid shut.

6. I have to take off all my jewelry and watch as soon as I get home from work. And I have to change into comfy sweats and pull my hair off my face. I start itching to do this the minute I walk through the door. At the same time, it's weird if I'm not wearing a watch during the day while working.

7. I hate reality shows but love watching the 'Bachelor' and the 'Bachelorette.'

8. My car doors have to be locked from the inside before I drive anywhere.

9. I have to shower in the evening (I can't stand going to bed dirty) but if I get home super late and I'm exhausted, I have to, at a minimum, wash my feet. I can't remember the last time I went to bed with dirty feet. Dirty feet + clean sheets = grossness.

10. I can't sleep unless I put on chapstick and apply hand lotion.

11. I love to drown my burgers in ketchup. And I mean drown, as in, I'm using the burger as a mechanism for getting the ketchup in my mouth.

12. I have a strange way of memorizing things. For my upcoming GRE exam, I have committed to memory 200 words so far, but the way I remember them is a bit weird. I don't do it in typical fashion where you just memorize robotically for the sake of memorizing. No, my friends, there is truly a method to this madness! I try to memorize in a way that will help me remember what I've learned even after taking the exam.

For example:

Cogent: well-mannered and convincing
To memorize this, I think: gent is for gentleman or gentle, and someone who is a gentleman or gentle will most likely be well-mannered or convincing.

Laconic: using few wordsFor some reason this word reminded me of the 90s video game 'Sonic the Hedgehog.' So I think about my younger brother and how whenever he'd be playing it or any other video game and I'd ask him a question, he'd be so engrossed that he'd answer back using few words.

13. I always assume the worst-case scenario. Hey, it helps to be prepared, right?

14. I can't get up in the morning without hitting the snooze button at least twice. It's like my body is not programmed to physically move until it's heard snooze being hit twice.

15. I have a really annoying habit (which I'm trying to break) of starting multiple books at the same time. For example, I am currently reading two books simultaneously (J.K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard and Khalil Gibran's The Prophet).

16. My work area has to be immaculate and orderly at all times before I'm able to be productive. I know instantly if someone has been in my office if my stapler is not perfectly aligned with the paper clip holder, if my pens are in the wrong place, if my chair is not tucked in, etc. I probably border on OCD, ha. I can just picture my future little munchkins rolling their eyes and thinking, "Mom's having another OCD episode!"

Where I spend 8 hours of my life daily on weekdays: