Wednesday, February 15, 2006

My weird habits

I’ve been tagged by Peggy to divulge five of my weird habits. There’re so many, it’s hard to whittle them down to just a mere five, but here goes:

1) This is one of my weirdest. I’m a scratcher. No I don’t have psorisis or a skin condition. I mean I like running my fingernails along certain materials simply because the stimulation feels good. It’s almost like a nail message. Unfortunately, at times the scratching is a little too audible. An acquaintance said it sounded like fingernails running along a blackboard (and yes, I would probably get off on that, too). Once I was subconsciously doing this while riding the bus and the man seated in front of me turned around trying to see where the noise was coming from (the nylon of my purse). Anyway, he couldn’t pinpoint it but he knew it was coming from me, so I received a quite pointed look. I simply looked back at him like, "What?"

2) I pull my eyelashes when I’m nervous. No, I’m not a masochist b/c there’s no pain. It’s a ridiculous habit I’ve yet to break. Maybe I should take up nailbiting.

3) I refuse to sit on bus or train seats without putting down some paper (usually sheets of a Walgreens salespaper). OK, call me germaphobic, but I’ve seen too many soiled homeless people riding the buses and trains and on one occasion a mental young woman was sitting on the bus with loose feces running down her legs. When I asked someone whether the seats were ever cleaned, I was given a definitive “no.” After that I became quite paranoid about where I sit publicly. After a while, I wondered whether I was being too anal and thought about just giving up the seat protection. But it was as though providence wanted to validate my decision because I happened to overhear a conversation between two transit workers talking about how rarely the traincars and seats are cleaned. One of them told of how a rider urinated in his seat, got up then went back to the seat and sat for the duration in his own wet stain. I’ve even had occasion to sit on a wet seat after a young tot had relieved himself on it. It’s not a pleasant feeling to know you’ve sat in someone’s leavings. So, I guess I’ll hold on to this weird habit for a while.

4) I like the smell of gasoline and paint. Can’t explain this one although I’ve run into others who share this prediliction. I don’t know if you can actually call this a habit though.

5) I sleep with my closet light on. I cannot sleep in total darkness. Will not. I’m not so much worried about the monsters beneath the bed; more like the ones who can break into my home, so I want to be able to see if someone is ever in my room. And yes, years ago when I was a teenager, I did awake from sleep to find someone rumaging through my room. At first, I thought it was my grandmother and called out to her, but from the silhouette (from the kitchen light), I realized it wasn’t my grandmother simply b/c my grandmother didn’t have an afro. The figure ran out of the room and I heard the living room door slam (my bedroom in those days was off the living room). I sat trying to convince myself that it was a dream, but then I crept into the living room and found the contents of my purse (which I usually kept on the kitchen table) dumped out on the couch. No dream. So, I guess this is another habit I’ll keep.

OK, so I’m weird. But at least I don’t drink, smoke, or take drugs, so I’m allowed some vices.