Foibles

Over at one of my favorite blogs, Superhero Journal, Andrea has tagged cyberspace to list 5 personal idiosyncracies.

I'm a strange bird, ritualistically-oriented you might say, so narrowing it down to five might prove challenging. Here's what comes to mind:

1) I can never purchase the first package of anything. In other words, when I reach for a bag of Pirate Booty, I have to take the bag behind the one in the front. When I buy milk, it must be the carton behind the one everyone has touched. If there is only one left of the item I want to purchase, it stresses me out.

2a) I get a real thrill when I finish something off -- like the last bit of shampoo or the last drop of lotion, or the final drop of orange juice, etc. This is because I am a little stasher, and always have a replacement waiting in the wings. But I can't open the new thing until the old one is completely finito (which is a major conflict with my husband who can open multiples at the same time -- imagine that!).

2b) I don't know if it is because of my dad's roots in poverty or mom's in the scarcity of post-WWII Berlin, but I am deathly afraid of running out of anything. Toilet paper and toothpaste are the two most critical. When I was living paycheck to paycheck, this was difficult to avoid, but generally I have a back-up of anything I use on a daily basis.

3) I loathe early morning (despite my knowledge that it can be serene, etc.) and am a true night person--almost always staying alert well past midnight. I've been known to vacuum and clean toilets at 11:00PM. The idea of having to be awake before 7:30AM sends me into convulsions, and I have a real problem with having to wake up and hit the floor running (an early appointment)--it can ruin me for the rest of the day. Oh, and I hate the sound of all the cars rushing around between 7:00-9:00AM.

4) Even if I'm not going to read, I must have a book or some kind of reading material by my bed before I can go to sleep. When I've tried to do without, I've ended up having to crawl sleepily out of bed and find something to place on my nightstand.

5) I have always had a special attachment to my birthday, October 14, and delight in finding out that cool people were born on this day. I often find that someone I like or admiresuch as e.e. cummings, Ralph Lauren, Natalie Maines (Dixie Chick), Winnie the Pooh (it's official), or Katherine Mansfield, share my birthday, and this inexplicably makes me feel special--as if we belong to some sort of Libran club. I also consistently check the time to find it is 10:14.

I know I'm missing other wierdnesses, like my need to carry chapstick with me wherever I go, or my compulsion to end up rushing even if I've given myself plenty of time to get ready. But this should suffice for the tag.

So one good tag deserves another, tell me your idiosyncracies.