Bring Back the Words: Do you have a habit that wouldn’t make sense to most people?”
Do I have a habit that wouldn’t make sense to most people? I flatter myself that I am fairly average, while still being completely exceptional, so I suspect not. Let’s go through the habits I can think of and you tell me if they make sense or not.
— I eat chips while I read, in bed, before going to sleep. Some people I’ve met think this habit is horrible and disgusting and it is if you think about all those chip crumbs in your bed and the greasy fingers turning pages. Awful! But to me it is nearly always* necessary.
* unless I am already so full I can’t move or I have no chips.
— It’s a rare evening when I manage to drag my tired and chip-encrusted ass out of bed after I’m done snacking but before I turn out the light so I can brush my teeth before I go to sleep, and that’s another disgusting (non?) habit. It also makes my morning breath The Worst Ever Except for Your Dog’s and yet.
Aside: Maybe this should instead be a study of ‘Do I have a habit that is so disgusting it will make people run screaming from my internet website?’ Maybe.
— Nine squares of toilet paper. No more, no less.
— I need a NEW KNIFE to spread my peanut butter. Not the other knife that probably has peanut butter on it but might have mustard on it. Can you imagine something worse than peanut butter mixed with mustard?
— I have a habit of having brilliant ideas about my future and not following through.
— I have a habit of making too many plans for one day and nothing for the rest of the week/month.
— I have a habit of buying pens and notebooks like the revolution is coming and there will be no pens or notebooks and people who can write things in notebooks with pens will get extra cheese and hugs.
— I have a habit of furrowing my brow.
— I don’t ever want to eat the last of anything in the fridge or freezer. Is this a self-preservation method, or politeness? I don’t know but that quarter cup of ice cream is going to stay there until it either turns to solid freezer burn or SA eats it.
— I write every morning in what used to be a spiral bound notebook but is now a binder because that’s just more practical/cost-efficient. Three pages, longhand, journal-ish stuff (sample: I am so sleepy I wish I had coffee oh I do have coffee I love coffee) to start my day. My right wrist is suffering from limited mobility due to all the longhand writing but if I skip so much as a day I start to lose my little mind. At 18 months straight, I guess this is a habit.
Hey it all makes sense to me, probably because if I don’t make sense to me where does that leave me? SENSELESS. Except the tooth-brushing-before-bed thing. I really should make that a habit.
Also the more I type “habit” the more I think of rabbits. Rabbits are so great.
I’m terrible about brushing my teeth at night. I’ve only recently worked up to washing my face at night, so maybe it’s a habit that can be learned?
And yes. Peanut butter ALWAYS ALWAYS needs a new, straight from the drawer or the clean dishwasher, knife. Always.
For what its worth I don’t think your habits are particularly weird or disgusting they are simply your habits and I think its great that you have the courage to put them out for folks to read about. Everyone has their habits, their quirks. They things they absolutley have to do or not do. so, based on that measure I would say you are alarming normal.
I have the same pen habit! My friend was digging in my backpack pocket for something in university and said “there’s nothing in here but eighteen pens, you neurotic weirdo.” I can’t imagine ANYONE using a used knife for peanut butter – or anything else, for that matter. The thought of not brushing my teeth before bed or eating chips in bed makes me want to run screaming to the shower, but that’s me being hinky, not you. I drink a diet pepsi a day even though I want to stop and I’m not really enjoying it any more.