strange habits
 

What are yours?

I was cleaning up my apartment this morning (couldn't sleep more than 3 hours after an all-night binge at one of New York's last remaining smoking bars) and just noticed some of the habits I have that one may or may not find peculiar.

Water is always poured from the Brita pitcher in the fridge into a 8-year-old Nalgene bottle that always resides next to my computer desk (as it has since maybe sophomore year of college). The bottle never moves from its place. If it drifts to the coffee table, I put it back almost immediately.

Pizza boxes, for no good reason, are stacked neatly on a wooden bench near the entrance to my studio (kinda far from the kitchen, but not really near the door either). The stack grows until I go jenga and knock the bugger over. Then there's an 80 percent chance I re-stack and let it be until it starts to smell.

I always sleep on the right side of the bed, regardless of whether I am alone or with a special, special lady. Therefore the "good" pillow goes on the right side while the "limp" pillow goes on the left. My squishy Mogu pillow goes on the left as well because I'll turn to the middle of the bed and hug it (is that weird?).

Newsweek (and only Newsweek) is strictly bathroom reading. As evidence, I have every issue since April in a stack on my bathroom floor. I cannot recall a single instance of, say, sitting on my couch, laying on my bed or propped up at my desk while reading the mag.

Suggestion: pick up a second good pillow so special lady feels more welcome and you don't need an excuse to stay on one side of bed. Sounds like efficient single guy living to me, everthing in its place. :thumbsup:

(still thinking but the list will be long)

Strange ones? I can't think of any that aren't. :)

I have tons of single-guy quirks. I do the same thing with the Nalgene bottle. I can't drink water out of anything else. Coffee is drunk from an orange stoneware mug with a big round handle. Milk is solely for cereal and dipping cookies into. It is served in one of the other myriad coffee cups I have, but not the orange one - that's for coffee.

If you read one James Bond novel, you must read them all (at least, all the Ian Fleming ones), starting with Casino Royale and ending with Octopussy (a collection of short stories, originally). If I'm in a particularly nostalgic-for-the-Cold-War mood, I'll read the Gardner ones. They don't have to be read in order, however.

Musical quirk - if there's a part I like on a song, I replay the song leading up to said part, then rewind and replay. I don't necessarily ever have to finish the song. I'm particularly bad about this when it comes to guitar solos. If, on subsequent listenings, the part doesn't sound as cool as it did before, I clear my mind and replay the lead-in to the part until it elicits the same reaction it did the first time.

If that hidden-camera show Motormouth was ever in my car, the editors would need therapy by the time they got through the footage.

I do the James Bond Novel thing too.

And won't read the non-Fleming ones at all.

Actually I have a lot of these book habits, it seems.

I have to read the chronicles of Narnia in the original order. Ditto for Suzanne Cooper's The Dark is Rising Sequence.

Larry Niven's Known Space must be read in the order of the time line in the beginning of the short story collection Tales of Known Space.

If I start a series of something, I have to continue it ... books and videos mainly. The only dodadish such thing that I have are the Star Trek Hallmark Light and Sound Ornaments, and I receive those as gifts.

If I read a magazine, I read the WHOLE magazine. Letters to the Editor, stories, sidebars, even the stuff I'm not really interested in.

other ones ... Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds must be listened to at Halloween. Snoopy vs. The Red Baron must be heard at Christmastime. The Charlie Brown Christmas Special must be viewed at least once, either when broadcast on TV or on VHS/DVD at least once after December 1, but before December 25.

More to come. I have to really think about these, because to me, of course, these habits are not strange.

Since I have recently started cohabiting with someone (for the first time, at the grand old age of 44) I am having to adjust some of my strange habits. I began to do this before he moved in by no longer insisting that the large and small forks, and large and small knives, all go in separate compartments in the cutlery drawer.
Today I'm having a little crisis as I've finally had to throw away the mug I always drink my morning coffee from (and only my morning coffee, I was consternated when BF brought me coffee mid-afternoon in this cup the other day, but didn't say anything!). The handle came off and I've already glued it back on twice: today I decided to give up and bin it. I'll try to view this a retail opportunity: the special charactistic of the mug in question is that it has a larger than average diameter, so that I can put the coffee filter cone straight in the top of the mug.

I'm very ritualistic about my morning beverage although I am now able to drink coffee or mate'. If you looked in my car you'd think homeless guy. Pete is working on those issues pretty steadily. Cycling is an addiction that so far has been beneficial but lets see what happens when I need to avoid it for an injury. I constantly refer to this website ...

Ha ha ha :thumbsup: I aways figured that if it was in my car, it was never that far away if I needed it. Add to that, trash doesn't go out the window...ever...for any reason. So the floor of the car tends to bear the brunt of any trash generated there. For some reason I can't get into those "litter bags" that are so readily available. They always get used for something else. :rolleyes:

Having a garage solves that problem... all the crap gets transferred from the car floor to the garage floor, problem solved.

There is still enough room for my car in the 2-car garage.

Slightly off topic
 

Where in N.Y. can you still smoke?

They have these speakeasies ... and sometimes there are tobacco parties in private homes.

Among my most pronounced wierd habits are washing in a certain order in the shower (if you accidentally start with the arms, you've got to start all over again) and the need to have oatmeal -- and only oatmeal -- in the special oatmeal bowl made for me long ago by an old roommate. I also play these little ergonomic games with myself, while cooking or cleaning the house: how few trips can I make to the cupboards, or how to use materials so they get put away with the most economy of movement.

Most of us have these types of habits, many generated by convenience, some by comfort, others just by falling into a familiar routine. I learned a lot about this when my youngest daughter was diagnosed with OCD at age 5 (counting compulsively, to the point where she couldnt stop herself and it was interfering with other stuff she wanted to do). When you start to read the literature on OCD, and see examples of obsessive behaviors, it's hard not to say "Oh shit, I do that ALL THE TIME!" It is important to realize that we all have traits of all these 'disorders-- usually to our benefit. It is when the trait becomes an impediment to normal function (can't EVER leave the house because you need to constantly make sure it is locked, etc.) that it falls into the disorder range.

Enjoy your quirks, folks; I've got to go shave the cat . . .

There are about a dozen bars in NYC that qualify as a "Cigar Bar" - meaning the place was open before Jan. 1, 2002 and that it gets more than 10 percent of revenue from tobacco products.

I was at Circa Tabac in SoHo/Chinatown, which was nice and had hot waitresses, but that all comes at a hefty price ($9-10 well cocktails; my date was drinking $14 chardonnays - ugh). I almost vomited from all the smoke, especially after no longer having to deal with that.

There is a list somewhere on the Internet of other bars that are smoker friendly, either by breaking the law or using similar loopholes. Think there are maybe 20 in all.

Shee-it! $10 well drinks? How much more gets added to that if you have a call?

I have to eat Skittles and M&Ms in a certain color order and always by twos. For example, Skittles come in Purple, Green, Orange, Yellow and Red and must be eaten in this order. If you have 3 purple and 3 green it is acceptable to eat 1 purple with 1 green to even it up again. If you get down to the red and there's three left, you just have to suck it up and eat 3 at once, although I don't recommend it.