Like most of us, I've my idiosyncracies. Certain tendencies that are like reflex actions to me amuse others, for instance, my husband. Of course, I tell him off that he's the weird one. Now, don't we all display some quirky behaviour that seems absolutely rational to us? The operational words here are, of course, 'to us'.
I thought of sharing some of my quirks with you all. It'll be a fun exercise to see how many of you find them weird and how many identify with me. So, here you go:
#1. I need my mail Inbox to, at all times, have zero unread messages. Unread messages, some junk others spam, that keep piling up make me restless and I need to delete them, report as spam, whatever, almost immediately. The spam folder also needs to be emptied, pronto! There's something about those numbers within brackets denoting unread messages that play on my mind and I've to do something about it. So, you can imagine my state of mind after a long vacation where I haven't had access to my emails. This is an emergency. I come back and ruthlessly make a clean sweep, swiftly sorting the junk from necessary. A lot of emails come in as a result of subscription channels. Normally, these get a brief glance but not so during emergencies. Only the absolutely necessary ones remain from the pile and then a sigh of relief escapes through my senses. I immediately feel sorted and happy!
Likewise for WhatsApp messages. I'm, by choice or destiny, a part of scores of common groups that are active by the minute through the day. I've, to retain my sanity, put most of them on "mute for a year". Yet, I need to click on the group periodically and make the green pop-ups go away. And, it doesn't mean I'm reading the messages.
The husband, on the other hand, has 3785 unread emails lying in his inbox. Oh dear, I cannot express how it feels when I see those numbers in bold within a bracket crying out for attention! I asked him once and he shrugged it off casually saying those emails are not important, hence unread. Why not delete them? He shrugged again and then looking at my alarmed state, snorted with laughter. That annoyed me further!
#2. Same with spills, however minor, on the cooking stove. I need to wipe them clean immediately. Most people accumulate the spills over the course of a cooking session and then set on the cleaning task. Not me. The stove surface is simultaneously wiped off the sprinkles of oil, broth, milk, etc even as these said items may be boiling over the gas. I always have a wipe handy when I'm cooking.
C has branded me as half-mental or "ara-loosu" as he calls me. It seems once we had a tiff and in the midst of intense argument, I was simultaneously found wiping the surface furiously. He recounted the observation with great amusement much later in the day and chuckled to add that only because he feared for his safety he had stiffled laughter inside his throat and quickly escaped to leave for work.
#3. I once got a potted plant that had the sapling planted away from the centre of the pot. No, I didn't lose sleep over it but only mentioned it as a minor irritant to the husband. Ironically, we were discussing Sheldon (from the Big Bang series) and his OCD. C slyly remarked that I'm at times as crazy as Sheldon. For the record, I don't have any OCD. Just more particular about certain things.
#4. When I was younger, my mother used to have a harrowing time tying my hair into two ponytails. The difficulties were multiple. Firstly, I had very thick and silky hair rendering it quite tough to get all the strands together enough to tie them or braid them. To top this, I was very finicky about the hair being parted exactly at the centre point in the front of the head and continue as a straight line until the nape. A slight deviation and I'd know (sense the comb movement) immediately and ask mother to re-do it. Even at the cost of being late to wherever I was going to. I definitely drove my mother up the wall because the waterworks were also forever ready in case she didn't comply with my specifications. Sheesh! Now, that I'm a mother myself I'm completely in awe of her patience and kindness. And, so glad that karma didn't come back to bite me. I've a son :-p
So, now that I've bared my secrets with you, tell me I'm not all that weird. Even better, tell me your quirks and give me some reason to wink knowingly at you :-)