You're Quirky Is Just Another Name for "You're Really Weird."

So...I've been away for a week or so...I apologize. Again, I blame work. I tend to spend 13 hour days at work and then come home and have about an hour to get dinner ready and help Raelynn with homework before she goes to bed. After that, I have about an hour and a half until I crash. I literally fall asleep almost every night sitting on the couch with my grading pen in my hand. This is your tax dollars at work people. But today, I'm not at school. David's aunt died and I'll be going to her funeral in just a bit. On to today's topic: quirks. Their like belly buttons and opinions....everyone has them and they're better left unshared. But not me..right? I'm an open book. I was standing in my closet picking out the clothes I'll wear to the funeral later and that's when this blog topic came to me. Here's a brief list of the quirks that I'm willing to share. There are others, but like I said.....those are better left unshared. 1) Closed Doors- At both schools I've worked at, it was required that your classroom door be closed and locked at all times for safety reasons. As a result, even when the kids aren't there and I'm working (which like I stated earlier, is ALL the time) I can't have the door open. It makes me feel vulnerable. This works to my detriment because since the door is locked, I have to get up and answer the door each time someone comes by. Some days, that's a lot. (I'm not complaining....I enjoy the company!) Another time it's not so great is when the air conditioning isn't working and I'm sweltering, I have a hard time keeping the door open to let in the cooler air. This may not seem quirky, but I'm the opposite at home. I don't like doors closed at home. (The exception here is the bathroom, of course. If you have kids then you know that the door doesn't stay shut long. Those kids will find you and not leave you alone.) Everyday, Mr. Riley, the custodian in my building, will sweep my floor and ask as he leaves, "Do you want the door shut, Mrs. Rosamond?" My daily answer: "Yes....I've got issues." 2) Barefoot- I like going barefoot. Except for when my feet will get dirty. And it doesn't matter if you try hard to keep your floor clean, after you've walked around for just a moment, your feet will start to feel dirty. So, what I do is get comfy on the couch, bed, chair ,etc....take off my shoes and then put them back on as soon as I get up. Right now, that's what I'm doing as I type this. 3) Closed-in Shoes- Maybe this one is related to #2. Coming from the Florida Keys and its constant hot weather, I wore sandals most of the time. When I moved to Mississippi I had quite the collection of Birkenstocks and Tevas. The weather here is a little cooler at times, but I have a problem wearing traditional flats. I can wear sneakers and stuff....I mean dressy shoes that you'd wear with a skirt or something. I don't like how my feet feel in closed in shoes. My solution is to wear mules. Closed in shoes in the front and open in the back. Which leads to the next quirk. 4) Wearing Mules with Dresses or Skirts- I think wearing mules with a skirt or dress looks ridiculous on me. I think it's something to do with going barefoot with these shoes. When I wear mules with slacks, I wear trouser socks. I don't do hose so that becomes a problem as to what to wear with the dress or skirt in cooler weather. My solution: Don't wear skirts or dresses in cooler weather. 5) Tomatoes- As a kid, I didn't like tomatoes raw or cooked. I would pick out stewed tomatoes from soup and stuff. I would, however, eat pasta with tomato sauce. As an adult, my taste buds have changed. I like tomatoes. But....I don't like regular tomato soup. I prefer a creamy tomato soup. I don't like tomato juice. (Don't get me wrong, I'll eat or drink either but I'm talking about my preferences here...) I do enjoy spicy tomato juice, such as Bloody Mary mix. I take the mix and add Tabasco, celery salt, and worcestershire sauce. The same goes for V8. I don't care for the regular kind, I like the spicy kind. 6) Accessories- As soon as I come home from being somewhere, I take off my watch and wedding ring and put them in a fish-shaped dish on my kitchen counter. It feels weird to wear them around. As soon as I leave the house, I put them both on. It feels weird to not have them on when I'm outside of my house. 7) Clocks- There is a clock in each room in my house including the bathroom and my closet. I need to know what time it is. It bothers me to see adults that don't wear watches, especially at work. My father-in-law doesn't wear a watch. Ever. I'm not even sure he has one. I'm guessing he uses his cell phone to tell time, but that's another thing that bugs me about people. 8) Pencils- I don't like mechanical pencils or the ones that have the leads on plastic tips that you take out and reload at the top. I like a good wooden pencil that is sharp. Really sharp. I don't like blunt pencils. And I don't like writing in pen. And when writing in pencil, I like there to be a nice eraser on top. 9) Scratchy Elbows-I don't like the feeling of having my elbows be scratchy, so I apply Neutrogena Hand Cream on them nightly. This is the best concentrated lotion in the world. It even says so on the bottle. 10) Long Sleeve Shirts- I am hot-natured. I always get hot when I wear long sleeves. As a result, I don't own very many long sleeve shirts and I won't wear a sweatshirt unless it is very cold and I'm going to be outside for a considerable amount of time. I figure that if it's cold enough outside for long sleeves and you work indoors, won't the inside be heated? And if it is, why would you need long sleeves? 11) Paperclips- I like the jumbo sized paperclips, not the small ones. I think this stems from the fact that I'm a teacher with a ton of papers and the small clips don't hold the papers. I also don't like paperclips that are coated in plastic or the ones that aren't traditionally shaped. I'm all about cute stuff, but paperclips shouldn't be swirl shaped. That's just wrong. 12) Clean Hands- I'm not one of those OCD types that washes their hands obsessively, but I don't like having dirty hands, very similar to dirty feet. My classroom in Florida had a sink in the room and it was great for this quirk. The room I'm in now doesn't have a sink. This bothers me. I know about GermX and all, but we all know that it's not the same feeling as washing your hands. 13) Safeguard Soap- My favorite soap scent is Safeguard. Kroger keeps it in their bathrooms. They also sell it in hand pump sizes. I have not found Safeguard in body wash size. I'm not even sure they make it. I think it's an antibacterial soap meant for hand washing. Until I find it, I'm enjoying how that soap smells after I wash my hands. 14) Ice- I don't know if this is considered a quirk or not, but I like to know that I have access to ice if I'm going to be somewhere for an extended amount of time. I have this ginormous insulated cup that I fill with ice every day and take to school. Drinks don't taste good just from the fridge. I like my cold drinks over ice. 15) Milk on Ice- I don't like milk on ice, nor do I like iced coffee. 16) Coffee- I don't like regular coffee. I like the expensive caramel coffee drinks that I can't spell correctly (I think it's "maccihito??") that cost $5 a pop. I also like the same coffee frozen. Just not over ice. 17) Getting My Teeth Cleaned- So going to the dentist is scarier than getting a mammogram. Up until the last year or so, I've always considered myself as one of those people with pretty good teeth. I must admit that I don't floss as much as I should, but I do believe in regular visits to the dentist. My teeth are a little sensitive as I've gotten older (who knew that you could brush your teeth TOO hard and it would wear away your gums? Really?) so when I go to the dentist I'm pretty uptight. One of the things they do when you get a cleaning is they use this sandy paste stuff to buff your teeth. What's quirky is that when the hygienist stops to refill her instrument or to use the oral vacuum cleaner to get rid of your spit, I take advantage of the down time. I crunch ithe paste between my teeth. I imagine that it's the closest thing I'll get to eating sand. Not that I want to eat sand or anything. I just like the feeling of the grit crunching between my teeth. 18) The Fan and The Blanket- When I go to sleep, I like to be cool. I'm not a person that deals with heat so well. As luck would have it, my bedroom is in the coolest part of the house. In the winter time this isn't so great. But.....I've gotten very used to sleeping with the ceiling fan on. There's something about the sound of the fan and the constant moving of air that I need to sleep. In the winter, I will put extra blankets on my bed because it will be cold so I'll be warm, and then I'll crank up the fan in case I get too hot from the blankets. Like somehow the combination of these two things will cancel each other out and I'll have the perfect sleeping temperature. 19) Lip Balm- I don't know why, but I have to put on a layer of lip balm every night before I go to bed, regardless of the temperature or the condition of my lips. I don't do this during the day. 20) Vibrate AND Ring- My phone is always set to vibrate and ring. What's weird is that if it doesn't vibrate I can't hear it and if it doesn't ring I can't feel it so I'll never know when people are calling. It doesn't help that I'm hard of hearing..... 21) Captions and Subtitles- Since I was diagnosed with Meniere's Disease several years ago and lost a significant amount of hearing in my left ear, I have to watch movies with the subtitles on. It really bugs me that some movies on DVD don't have this option and that it's not available in the movie theater. I also don't have it on my TV but I think that if I did, I'd be irritated because it seems that when I have seen it on TV, the captions and the person speaking aren't in sync. I almost can't understand what is being said on TV unless it's on. This is just the tip of the iceberg of my quirks. I figure most of these are harmless enough. I may dig deeper and share some more another time. You can bet that when I do, I won't be wearing shoes or a watch, and there will be an iced drink (not coffee or milk) in front of me with my clock right next to it. Toodles!