Your (Or Someone You Know's) Weirdest Habit/Hangup

[Dom Heffner]

Everybody does something that they just can't stop doing- or at least knows someone who has a habit like this. Or, we all know someone who has weird rules for themselves, like someone who will only take showers but not baths.

I, for instance, cannot stop cracking my thumbs. I crack them all the time, and have ever since I had surgery on one of them. I don't crack my index finger or anything other than my thumbs.

Also, I don't mind drinking after someone, but I absolutely cannot do it if it's milk. I have no idea where this came from, but milk is in a separate category for me.

I will also not watch any animal being harmed on television, no matter if it's real or not. I'll watch those National Geographic specials all day but once they show the slowest zebra getting attacked, I'm out. I understand it happens in real life, but my theory is we all use the bathroom in real life, too, and no one wants to see that on television either. If I wanted reality, I wouldn't be watching television, I'd just go look out the window.

One of my best friends has a rule where he cannot sleep with a girl if he knows anyone else that has had relations with her. He also applies this rule to famous people, so if he knows, for example, that Matthew Broderick has had sex with Sarah Jessica Parker, then he doesn't find her attractive at all because of this. It is the most annoying and strange thing I have ever seen.

Me: Would you do Eva Longoria?
Him: Nope. That dude from 'N Sync was with her. That's gross.

He'll apply it to his personal life, too. The girl doesn't have to be the big 'v," he just cannot be familiar with the guy who was with the girl. If he sees the dude, she's crossed off his list.

This may tank as a thread idea, but I thought I'd throw some of these out there to see if anyone else some strange stuff to pass along.

[creek14]

Man Dom, you're weird. :

Not really. Actually I do some of the same stuff. But I'm not going to say what.

But I am a no bath person. It just grosses me out. Showers only. And I have never understood how people can take a shower at night, go to bed, then just get up and get dressed. Ick. Morning shower.

And I buy a new toothbrush at least once a month, if not more often. Usually more often.

I'm sure there are more.

[cincinnati chili]

And I have never understood how people can take a shower at night, go to bed, then just get up and get dressed. Ick. Morning shower.

I'm a morning shower person too, but I have to interject that this is a weird hangup.

Unless you sweat like a pig in your sleep or unless you never wash your sheets, are you really going to get "dirty" in a 7 hour period where you basically don't move? (I realize I'm setting you up for a retort of "well ya know, chili, not all of us just LIE THERE in bed all night... heh heh)

I have one showering quirk, myself. We keep our house at 65 or colder all winter, and I can handle that. But I hate being cold when I get out of the shower (cold + wet = chili-not-happy). As a habit, I try to lay out every piece of clothing that I'm going to wear the next day... socks, tie, underwear, etc., put it on a hanger and hang it in the bathroom. That way I can be "cold" for only a few seconds. After four years of marriage, my wife is still amused by getting up to wee wee in the middle of the night and seeing undies and socks staring at her from the towel rack.

[Red in Chicago]

here is just a very small sample of my "issues" and believe me, there are lots more...some are just too embarrassing to write down...
-i always take some breath mints to work...but the weird thing is that it must be an even amount...i have literally counted out 30 mints for a weekend trip..

-a no "number 2" rule at work...if mother nature calls, i drive all the way home to oblige...then must take a shower afterwords...

-constantly washing hands...if no soap, then i have those anti-bacterial wipes with me...if eating out in a restaurant, the salt & pepper shakers get wiped down, as well as the ketchup bottle...

-never touching a door handle or shopping cart with my bare hands...this is why we have paper towels...if no paper towels...in an emergency, some part of your shirt will do...

-most people's feet gross me out, but yet, i'm compelled to look at their toes whenever they wear sandles...

[cincinnati chili]

here is just a very small sample of my "issues" and believe me, there are lots more...some are just too embarrassing to write down...
-i always take some breath mints to work...but the weird thing is that it must be an even amount...i have literally counted out 30 mints for a weekend trip..

-a no "number 2" rule at work...if mother nature calls, i drive all the way home to oblige...then must take a shower afterwords...

-constantly washing hands...if no soap, then i have those anti-bacterial wipes with me...if eating out in a restaurant, the salt & pepper shakers get wiped down, as well as the ketchup bottle...

-never touching a door handle or shopping cart with my bare hands...this is why we have paper towels...if no paper towels...in an emergency, some part of your shirt will do...

-most people's feet gross me out, but yet, i'm compelled to look at their toes whenever they wear sandles...

Wait a minute.... I know you! Why the &*%# did you fire Sharona?!!!!!

[TeamBoone]

here is just a very small sample of my "issues" and believe me, there are lots more...some are just too embarrassing to write down...
-i always take some breath mints to work...but the weird thing is that it must be an even amount...i have literally counted out 30 mints for a weekend trip..

-a no "number 2" rule at work...if mother nature calls, i drive all the way home to oblige...then must take a shower afterwords...

-constantly washing hands...if no soap, then i have those anti-bacterial wipes with me...if eating out in a restaurant, the salt & pepper shakers get wiped down, as well as the ketchup bottle...

-never touching a door handle or shopping cart with my bare hands...this is why we have paper towels...if no paper towels...in an emergency, some part of your shirt will do...

-most people's feet gross me out, but yet, i'm compelled to look at their toes whenever they wear sandles...

Are you sure your name isn't Adrian Monk?

Ooops, I didn't read the later posts. Looks like someone else had the same idea.

I guess that's one of my "things"... I respond to posts right away as I read them.

[macro]

And I have never understood how people can take a shower at night, go to bed, then just get up and get dressed. Ick. Morning shower.

My wife and I disagree on this. She's a night-shower person and I'm a morning shower person. It works out well, because we stay out of one another's way. My theory is like yours, creek. I like to start the day with a nice hot shower. She says she doesn't like to go to bed dirty.

I'm not sure this is weird or not, but I will not use my toothbrush unless I run it under water before putting the toothpaste on and again before I begin to use it. It's like a dry toothbrush is kinda gross to me, but wetting it makes it acceptable.

I won't eat something off a buffet unless the particular item is brand new and untouched, or almost so. If two or three people have dipped into it already, I probably ain't eatin' any of it. I see people take the very last of something out the pan and it makes me cringe. Some would consider me weird for that, I guess, but my wife is the same way.

As for restrooms, I won't touch anything without a paper towel. I see people take the time to wash their hands with soap, then touch the faucet handle with their clean hands, which just got germy again. Then they'll often take hold of the door handle on the way out. More germs. Kinda defeats the purpose of washing, I think. Just trading your own germs for someone else's.

[cincinnati chili]

As for restrooms, I won't touch anything without a paper towel. I see people take the time to wash their hands with soap, then touch the faucet handle with their clean hands, which just got germy again. Then they'll often take hold of the door handle on the way out. More germs. Kinda defeats the purpose of washing, I think. Just trading your own germs for someone else's.

I do this. And I rarely get a cold. Or meningitis (sp?)

Other peoples germs build immunities... or something like that.

[SandyD]

I sleep under 3 blankets with the ceiling fan on. All but the coldest of nights. And I still wake up sweating, especially in the spring/ summer. It's the humidity, I think.

[GAC]

This thread will simply show the Jerry Seinfeld, George Constanza, Elaine Benis, and Kramer in all of us.

[TeamCasey]

I always sit on an aisle seat. I feel absolutely trapped and a little freaked out when I can't. In fact, I'd rather stand ..... which I've done at games.

I never take the top or the front item in a store. For example, I'll lift the top newspaper in a stack and get the next one.

[RedsBaron]

I always sit on an aisle seat. I feel absolutely trapped and a little freaked out when I can't. In fact, I'd rather stand ..... which I've done at games.

I never take the top or the front item in a store. For example, I'll lift the top newspaper in a stack and get the next one.

I'm with you on the above, especially the need to sit on an aisle seat. I really do not like to sit in the middle of an aisle or seat, be it at a sporting event, movies, church, or just riding in a vehicle.

[Red in Chicago]

I always sit on an aisle seat. I feel absolutely trapped and a little freaked out when I can't. In fact, I'd rather stand ..... which I've done at games.

I never take the top or the front item in a store. For example, I'll lift the top newspaper in a stack and get the next one.

tc...not trying to copy you, but both of these are me as well...i have so many hangups, that i can't keep track of them all...in restaurants, if we get a booth, i am never the one inside...i always am on the outer edge...same with airplanes...forget the window seat...it's not really a trapped thing with me, as it is a "what if i have to use the bathroom" or something kind of thing...i hate bothering people...
as far as the store goes, the items that are on top or in front are the items that are returned back from the checkouts where people changed their minds...

ok, here are a couple more...whenever in a restaurant, NEVER ask it to be reheated or cooked differently...either don't eat it or manage your way through it...

whenever someone sneezes around you, immediately, hold your breathe and escape the area as quickly as possible...

never eat anything that falls in your kitchen sink...do you know how gross your kitchen sinks really are...even if you clean them...

i wash my sheets at least twice a week...with extra bleach...have you ever seen that one clorox commercial with the body soot...oh the horror!!!!!

[cincinnati chili]

It would be fun to go camping with some of you people.

never eat anything that falls in your kitchen sink...do you know how gross your kitchen sinks really are...even if you clean them...

Kitchen sinks, or so I hear, contain more germs than toilet bowls. So if you're afraid of germs, this is a logical place to fear.

[TeamCasey]

as far as the store goes, the items that are on top or in front are the items that are returned back from the checkouts where people changed their minds...

i wash my sheets at least twice a week...with extra bleach...have you ever seen that one clorox commercial with the body soot...oh the horror!!!!!

If it's a newspaper, I just figure some yutz already pawed through it ..... and they probably stole the TV guide!

With grocery items, I assume that the fresher stuff is in the back. It's a conundrum if I'm choosing oranges from a big pile or pyramid though.

You really strip your bed that often? Too lazy. I do mine about once every few weeks. I'm comfortable in my own filth. It's the filth of others that gives me the heebie jeebies. I don't share a bed, so I just switch sides after awhile, or turn the mattress.