Freakish Schtuff...

One of my favorite bloggers, His Girl tagged me for a Six Random Quirks About Me meme. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of the meme. Anybody else wonder what in the world meme stands for??? BUT, since I like HisGirl so much, and since I sorta/kinda already wrote about some of my quirks freakish characteristics in this post, I'll just cut and paste and roll with it! I kinda think I'm supposed to post the rules too, but you know me-- the rebellious rulebreaker. You can link here to read the rules.

Here's my list:

1. I only eat fruit on an empty stomach. I have to wait at least 3 hours after eating anything else before attempting to put a piece in my mouth. The exception might be a salad with fruit in it, or dessert. Like peach cobbler or strawberry shortcake. But I never eat just plain fruit as my dessert. Just can't do it.

2. I suffer from a severe phobia of germs. I wash my hands dozens of times each day. I disinfect my kitchen sink and countertops daily. I don't use sponges and I run my dish-scrubbers through the dishwasher every day. Hotel rooms scare me too. I wear flip-flops in the bathroom/shower and my slippers in the room and I keep my toothbrush standing upright in one of the glasses by the sink. My kids have never seen the play area at the mall (we take creative shortcuts) because I'm deathly afraid of the germs lurking there. I wipe down the shopping carts at the grocery store, and thank goodness more stores are providing antibacterial wipes these days. I won't flush my toilet without the lid down AND my toothbrush put away inside the medicine cabinet. Public restrooms are another nightmare altogether.

3. I drink out of the same cup every single day. If I forget to run it through the dishwasher, I'll wash it rather than use another one. It's a purple MOPS cup that I've had probably 6 years. It was a gift to me for serving on the MOPS steering committee. I like it because it is insulated and it has a handle. I need a cup with a handle, especially in the winter, because I don't like touching a cold glass when I drink a cold beverage.

4. I clean my kids' ears out with Q-tips almost daily. Two of my kids have the grossest, brownest ear wax you've ever seen. It accumulates on the outside of their ear canals and I just can't stand looking at it. So I clean it. I'll see one of them and say, "Honey, go get me 2 Q-tips, and they come back and stand there obediently while I clean 'em up. But they like me to "wik" the Q-tip first, which means they want me to moisten the Q-tip. By licking it. I've been doing this since one of those children was very small and couldn't pronounce the "L" sound, replacing it with a "W" instead, and we've just sorta kept on saying that with the ear/Q-tip thing. So I "wik" it first, then clean. Pretty gross, huh?

5. This one is probably what most people would say qualifies my freakishness. I DO NOT LIKE CHOCOLATE. Not at all. Even the smell makes my stomach turn. Most people simply can't understand this. I'm not sure I do either. At one point in my life I liked it. I remember going to the corner grocery store and buying Marathon bars--the foot-long, rope-shaped candy bar with caramel inside. I remember making Hershey kiss trees at Christmas with my grandmother and gorging myself on stolen kisses. And breaking Kit-Kat bars in half to share with my sister. But somewhere along the way I stopped liking it. I'll eat Oreos from time to time and just last week I had a Klondike bar, but for some reason that doesn't really have the same chocolate taste as say a Hershey bar. White chocolate is a different story for me though. I do like that. I don't really crave it the way chocolate lovers crave chocolate, but I don't usually turn it down either. The best creation? White chocolate Reeses' Peanut Butter cups. They are delicious!!!

6. I leave notes for John in the shower. Hairy notes to be precise. I shed constantly, so I take strands of my hair and spell out things like, "Hey, J, I love you" or "Hi honey". So embarrassing to tell you this. I don't think he's ever actually seen one of my notes though. My hair is naturally curly, and when it's wet, it bends and shapes itself easily into any form, but when it dries, it gets all crazy and boing-y (made that word up myself) and my lovely message gets all messed up. Does it get any more freakish than that? Obviously, I have too much time on my hands.

Okay...I'm not tagging anyone, but if you think you have quirky/freakish things you'd like to share about yourself, by all means do so, and then come back here and leave me a link to your post.