Dear Charlie:
List five of your weirdest habits:
1 - At work, I absolutely have to have my Outlook Inbox up first, then my WinAmp or Windows Media Player, and then my actual working program(s). If they get out of order on my toolbar -- like if I have to shut down one of those first two without shutting down a later program -- I have to shut everything down and bring them back up in order.
Part of this admittedly obsessive-compulsive behavior is simple practicality. At work, I always have my Outlook up, and when playing a CD or some mp3s, I want it effectively out of the way of my more changeable other duties. The only time I exit those first two programs is if something is wrong. However, my job is varied enough that I can switch from Word to Excel to our affiliation's specific program and back again. Same at the law firm for the last five years. I'd work on different programs there, but the Outlook and WinAmp would always be up and safely out of the way to the left of the toolbar.
2 - Back in high school, I started collecting books that I loved in my youth. I've always been a book-a-holic, of course, but I didn't have much of my own collection until I started stock-piling. At the time, I always figured I was picking them up for my kids some day, hoping they would be able to read the same books that fired my imagination and sense of humor.
And then, in college, I remembered that I didn't want kids! However, the habit has remained, and I still try to buy books that I once borrowed from my hometown library. I catch myself surfing Amazon.com for the titles I remember and looking up author pages for Betty Ren Wright and Beatrix Potter and Stephen Cosgrove and such. Every now and then, if I have the extra change, I'll buy a few and stockpile them.
I now have two Ruf-Totes full of books with no shelves, an entire bookcase full of everything Stephen King has published, and several other miscellaneous boxes of this-n-that, and no planned children on which to fob them off! Woo-hoo!
3 - I'm not sure if this counts so much as a habit or just more evidence of my intentionally undiagnosed ADD, but I collect hobbies. I will work gung-ho on a project until I've forgotten to eat, sleep, drink, or take a leak for hours on end...until I lose the fire. Now, as an adult, I have trained myself to remain on-task at work and at writing. But, at home and at play? Well, I tend to go where the mood takes me.
As such, I bake, cross-stitch, crochet in a pinch, quilt, embroider, draw - I've run the gamut of charcoals, pastels, water-colors, acrylics, oils, colored pencils, crayons, and chalks - play chess and mahjong, throw pottery and build sculpture, dabble in numerology and have an amusing interest in astrology, name a laundry-list of Greek and Roman gods, remember lots of elements from the Periodic Table by abbreviation and the chemical structures of several basic household substances, curse in at least 5 other languages, spout statistics and entertaining commentary on most teams in the NFL, do basic car maintenance and even a spot of repair if absolutely necessary (and if Dad's there to do all the hard stuff, heh), dabble at minor carpentry, work most computer programs and even troubleshoot in a pinch, play with basic woodworking - both functional and decorative - knock down buildings with a sledge hammer, etc. Hobbies. They come and go like the wind. Except football, of course. All have held my intense focus at some point. All still hold a little piece of my heart.
4 - I can read a book, listen to a song, or watch a movie over and over again without losing my enjoyment of said book, song, or movie. I once watched Pitch Black three times in a row. Loved it each time. I've read several of Stephen King's novels dozens of times each. I can listen to Nickelback's Animals five times in a row.
The first time I experience something, I experience the pure enjoyment of something new and amazing. The successive times? I'm usually studying the something. Trying to find exactly what works for me. Savoring. Turning it this way and that. Underlining key phrases, specific wording, particular favorites. That kind of thing. Every time I experience something again, I find something new to love.
5 - I hang up on someone if they haven't answered by the second "hello". I don't have time to listen to a computer telling me to hold the line. I don't have time for the multi-dialling telemarketers to get rid of the last schmuck so they can schmooze me. I greet twice and hang up.
Admittedly, I have hung up on perfectly legit callers, but if they're really trying to get ahold of me as opposed to butchering my last name or asking for some mysterious Mr. GutterBall - who obviously doesn't exist - they will simply call back and be a little quicker on the draw.
Okay, so there are some of my bizarro habits. I know, I know! Just when you guys were starting to think I was normal again!
I'm not gonna tag anyone else, though I'm curious as to what everyone else would say. If you wanna answer but don't want to use a whole blog entry on it, feel free to spam my comments section. Enjoy!