Quirks!

I've been tagged a few times before, and but have never responded to one yet. I always meant to, but I can't ever seem to get it done. However, this most recent tag seems simple and quick. So, I'll give it a go...(Thanks, Natalie!)

Six Things That Make Me Quirky

1. ORGANIZATION - My closet looks like a rainbow. The shirts are all hung by color, starting with black, gray, brown...then onto purple, blue, green. Next come the yellows, oranges, and reds, followed by pink. Off-white and white finish it off. The shirts are also always hung with the buttons or fronts to my left (easier for a right-handed person like be to see). Short sleeves are on the top rack and 3/4-length and long sleeves on the bottom. (Don't expect to see anything else organized in my house that way.) Except my children's books in the library. They are all organized by alphabetical themes...Alphabet, Bears, Bedtime, Birds, Bugs, Christmas, Community, Dinosaurs, Eat Good Foods, Farm, etc.) I guess that's the "Kindergarten Teacher" in me coming out.

2. LOST but not FOUND - Perhaps if my organization in the rest of the house was even remotely effective, I would not find myself always looking for things. When I lose something, I get obsessed with finding it. Everything else stops until it is either found or considered lost forever. I have to look ten times in the same spots, rooms, nooks and crannies, before I'm willing to give up...because I just might find it there, even if it wasn't there the last nine times I looked. I pace the floor, grumble out loud, and talk to myself, as I search. My husband has learned to "stay low" during my search "sessions".

3. FOOD - When I eat a sack lunch, I eat each food separately...meaning I start with the sandwich, eating it in it's entirety before moving onto the chips. Then the chips have to be gone before I go onto the fruit. After the fruit is gone, I work on either the treat or the drink. But, when food is all laid out on a dish, I am not as systematic in the way I eat...a few bites of this, and then this, and then this, and back to the first. And, when using utensils I eat in the European way. I put my knife in my right hand and fork in the left. After cutting meat, I don't put down the knife and then pick up the fork to eat the bite. I just stab the meat with the fork in the left hand and eat it from there. I learned to eat this way in Argentina, and have never been able to go back to the American way. Another eating habit I formed in Argentina is using bread in the left hand to help scoop food onto your spoon or fork.

4. LITERATURE - I have some inexplicable loyalty to the books I read. I can not start a book and not finish it, even if it is the most boring, non-engaging story. There's something about leaving a book half-way into it that just bugs me. What if the really good part is at the end? What if there is some mystery I'd never know the answer to if I didn't finish the book? My last 600+ page novel took me months to finish, because I had to complete it. I wasted a lot of time that could have been spent on "better" stories, but...heaven forbid I quit before the ending!

5. SCRAPBOOKING - I am over 7 yrs. behind in my scrapping. I scrap chronologically. That means I never go out of order. Supposedly, you're supposed to start with the most recent and move backwards. This will allow you to scrap the things that are freshest in your mind and more excited about. And you'd move faster through it and get caught up. I can't do that. Going backwards would mess me up way too much. Thus, the piles of printed photos aren't going anywhere. And the jpegs on disc and on my computer (that will eventually be scrapped digitally) are viewed via computer only.

6. FINGERNAILS - I still bite my fingernails. I can't get over this bad habit. I've tried many, many times to stop, but to no avail. Some of the things I've done to try and quit the habit are: painting my nails, applying Thumb-o (a cayenne pepper stuff the same stuff used to stop thumb suckers) on my fingers, wearing an elastic band around my wrist and "flicking" myself with it every time I catch my fingers in my mouth, putting Band-aids on every finger, fake nails (I still "played" with and chewed on them), keeping my fingers busy, hypnosis, self-affirmations, and just plain ol' will-power. I even had a friend tell me that fingernails are made up of the same waste by-product made by our bodies. And just think of all those germs and bacteria clinging to the fingernails. YUCK! Even still, I have not been able to quit the habit. Any good ideas out there?

O.K. Maybe this wasn't such a good exercise. I see know what a DORK I am. Who's turn is next?
Jen G., Kami G., Katrina L., and Jaala A.