Odd little habits and behavior. Quirks. Idiosyncrasies. They give us character. Maybe sometimes they make others look at us with that somebody get the butterfly nets and the straight jackets look a bit sideways. Sometimes they’re functional and sometimes they’re just plain funny But all the time they’re part of who we are.
Whoa! Check out the weirdo.
Susie Lindau recently blogged about her top ten inexplicable idiosyncrasies which reminded me of Kristen Lamb’s hilarious post about febreze addiction and inspired me to share my some of my odd habits.
- I’m addicted to emoticons: I love ‘em
. They’re so cute. And nobody can see my big goofy grin when I’m tweeting, commenting on a blog, etc. So, you know, I have to use an emoticon 
. It is only with the greatest of restraint that I don’t put them in business emails and only put a few of them in my blogs. =^..^= - I talk with my hands. A lot: Which is probably the real reason I’m addicted to emoticons. When I say a lot, I mean A LOT. I probably look like a mime (except, you know, I talk so much that I really couldn’t be mistaken for an actual mime)…or maybe I just look nuts. Probably the latter.
- I talk to myself, animals, plants and inanimate objects: Yep, I run dialogue from MIP out loud. I talk to the computer when it’s acting up. I talk to the cats like equals. I chat with pretty much all my houseplants and anything I plant in the garden. I try to avoid doing this too much outside the house. Thank goodness I have my kiddos with me so much because I can just talk to them.
- I’m a sucker for flavored beverages: Coffee, hot chocolate, waters, tea. You name it. Every time I see a different flavored something, I’ve got to have it. My tea cupboard is embarrassing.
- I have to move some part of my body to concentrate: I can rarely sit completely still for any length of time. I have to either wiggle my foot, tug my earlobe, twist my hair or take notes. Yep, I got in a lot of trouble in school.
What about you? Do have an odd habit (or fifty)?
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I love emoticons! I have to resist using them in business emails too, Sonia. I think they get a bad rap.
We should compare tea cupboards! I swear I’m secretly a tea hoarder. And I too talk to both animate and inanimate objects whether or not they’re listening or can talk back. Just wanted you to know you’re not alone!
Love the post idea, I might have to try it too!
I talk with my hands too!
This all sounds very familiar. Do you talk to the TV?
Guilty as charged. LOL
Sonia, we have more in common that you might suspect. I talk to my dogs and answer for them; they all have difference voices. hmmm
lol!! I am glad I am not the only person who talks to their pets and answers for them.
LOL. I totally give the animals individual voices too.
hahaha!!! I love the cat picture. It looks like my little LB cloned.
I absolutely talk with my hands a lot. Annnd I talk to my car, my computer, my coffee mug… and to go one step nuttier. I talk to my cats and have given them their very own voices to talk back to me!
Zippo is cantankerous and LB is sarcastic.
What a great post!
LOL! We have a lot in common. I use the
way too much, and “lol.” And I’m really bad about talking with my hands…and to the dogs.
Loved this post!
I am so glad that you ran with the idea! I was hoping others would.
Talking to myself is one of my worst habits and I forgot about that one. I have caught myself muttering to myself out in public numerous times.
Great post! Thanks for the pingback~
It was such a great post.
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I talk to myself too. And every time I lock a door, I have to jiggle the handle to make sure it’s locked, even though I already know it is. There’s another word for that, but we’ll just go with quirk.
I do that too…along with double checking the stove, the curling iron, etc to make sure they’re off. LOL
Welcome to my world.
Among the many, talking to myself, with my hands going at full force is one of them. I really like emoticons, too, and lately seem to have latched onto exclamation points. A period just does not express the tone behind what I’m writing, dang it! I am a pretty anal person when it comes to keeping things organized. Not as bad as Monk, but disorganization makes me, well…uncomfortable. This was a very fun post!
It’s so great to know that we’re all a little odd. LOL. Thanks for sharing everyone! (<— and there's that "!" I love 'em too. Almost as much as emoticons.
)
Ditto on so many of these things. My mother used to joke with me that the only way I would keep my hands still when I talked was if I sat on them. I also talk to myself and anything else around me, sometimes that might be other people, sometimes it might be a chair. I am a hair twirler and foot tapper as well. And oh yes,
Emoticons rock!
Wonder what proportion of writers verses non writers have these habits!?
“Wonder what proportion of writers verses non writers have these habits!?” Might be a good survey.
Do you find that you can’t concentrate on what you’re saying as well if you have to keep your hands still? I have such a hard time focusing if I do. LOL
The guys with the butterfly nets are coming for both of us. Not only do I talk to the dog, I “do” his answers back at me. He talks like Samuel L. Jackson. I heckle the actors in horror movies. As the other side of the coin for your beverage fetish, I won’t drink sweetened beverages. The most I’ll do is put a couple tablespoons honey in a 64 oz. pitcher of tea.
Loved this post.
ROFL about the Samuel L. Jackson dog.
You’re all not alone! I should know. I interviewed thousands of people about their quirks and idiosyncrasies for my two humorous/human interest books:
•Admit It, You’re Crazy! Quirks, Idiosyncrasies, and Irrational Behavior
and
•And I Thought I Was Crazy! Quirks, Idiosyncrasies and Meshugaas
You can imagine how many quirks I’ve acquired after interviewing so many people! And I couldn’t afford it—I had too many to begin with! In fact, my husband insists that if I wrote the books as autobiographies, they would have been much longer!
Here’s one of my (many) quirks:
The quirks in my book are divided into chapters about Food, Clothing, Money, Bathroom, Sleep, Germs and Miscellaneous. I couldn’t bring myself to put the food chapter back to back with the bathroom chapter because it seemed repulsive to me. I separated them with the money chapter.
Look inside the books:
http://amzn.to/A5O2st
http://amzn.to/w5lIXr
You will laugh while gaining insight into yourself and others!
http://www.judyreiser.com
I don’t consider moving around an odd habit. I’m kinesthetic — a hands on person — and moving around helps me think and retain information. I even did it on a 3 hour drive back from a con so I wouldn’t be so dead exhausted when I drove in. Sitting still for a long period of time is exhausting for me.
BTW, my father says talking to yourself isn’t bad. It’s getting into an argument with yourself and losing the argument that’s a problem.
I have no idosyncrasies. I also never make mistakes, never procrastinate, never take naps, and never lie. Just prevaricate a little now and then.
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I talk to myself in the mirror just because it gives me some sort security and a belief that there is somebody else in the room.
@Linda: Hmmm…sometimes I do lose arguments with myself. Uhoh.
@David: All hail David! LOL
@Patrick: I make faces at myself in the mirror a lot. Sometimes I catch myself doing it in public too. *blush*
What a great post idea! I must have a hundred quirks myself, at least. The ones I share with you are the hand-talking (as do all the women on my mom’s side of our family), the talking to myself, animals and inanimate objects, and the need to wiggle something (usually a leg) in order to think. Since we share them, I’m considering these all signs of creative genius!
I wiggle feet to wake up. A problem for my cat, Robin
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lol For some reason I’m pretty much unable to sit still without doodling all over something. Every lecture at uni, I’d sit there drawing pictures all over the notes, or if I’m on the phone I’ll get the nearest bit of paper (usually mum’s shopping list, which gets me into trouble) and start doodling on it as well. The odd thing is, I find that if I don’t doodle, I have a much harder time concentrating and remembering anything that’s said
Aside from that, my art supply and stationery addiction is well-documented.
I don’t do it so much now, but I used to continually watch myself in any reflective surface around, I got teased a fair bit on the assumption that it was vanity, but what I was actually doing was trying to see myself in context… actually that’s probably still fairly self-obsessed, but not I need to look good style vanity.
Okay. Odd. Hmmm.
My husband CLAIMS he should no longer dance after knee replacement surgery. I dance alone. In public.
For the record, Cavender’s Boot City has the best boot-scootin’ music.