Quirks

Written by Jennifer Haler
9-30-13

So let’s talk about quirks.  Those little things that everyone has.  Those small peculiarities that annoy the heck out of you but don’t seem to bother most others.  And I am sure I am not the only person to tease others when I have the knowledge of what their quirks are. :) 

I was thinking about this while watching my kids pester each other. 

Before starting I would like to give a big thanks to my family for letting me share all of our personal info.  I am hoping that no one out there takes this info. and uses it against us… well, don’t use it against me anyways. :)

My son cannot stand to have other people’s feet touching him so of course the girls try to stick their feet in his face whenever they can.  One of my girls hates spiders and my son has a super large radio controlled spider he uses against her frequently.  She gives quite a good squeal when it comes towards her.  My other girl cannot stand the sound of a utensil scraping against a pan so having her scrape the remnants of food out of the pot is not a good idea.

Now for my husband and me.  We both have a few small quirks.  For instance, I need to have sheets, blankets and towels folded a certain way.  If they are folded the “wrong” way I have a strong desire to fix it.  I don’t know why, but it really bugs me.  The item should be held on the short end and folded in half with the hands coming together.  Now it is narrow and long so you fold it in half down.  If it is small like a towel, you can hang it perfectly on a rack this way or fold it in half down again to fit in the closet.  If it is larger like a blanket you continue the pattern of across and down folding until it is small enough to store.  I realize that this sounds a bit OCD, but in my brain it’s the way things are supposed to be folded.

My husband cannot stand to have a gap left in-between the curtains when they are pulled shut.  It bothers him enough that he will need to get up and fix it.  This is minor but still annoys him.

These are small things but the more fun ones are the big quirks.  Here is where it gets interesting with the goofier peculiarities that make each of us unique.  What you may very well find to be a small mess another man may feel is the bane of his existence. 

We’ll start with my husband first.  

A little back story.

My husband comes from a big gaming family.  And they take their games seriously.  You are never allowed to quit a game.  If you need to stop in the middle and are unable to come back, then this is considered a loss. They don’t mind losing if it is in a fair game but a loss from giving up is unacceptable.  Needless to say, I have seen many a person continue a game well beyond when they had to leave, go to bed, meet spouses, etc.  all because you are not allowed to just stop in the middle.  (Isn’t it amazing they all managed to find spouses even though they are consistently late because they were playing a game?)  

So what do I do to my poor husband for some personal entertainment?  Yep, start up a game online like texttwist, zuma or any others and then leave it unfinished.  He will find it there on the computer, just waiting for him.  And often can’t do whatever it was he was going to do in the first place until the game is concluded.   This always give me a good chuckle.

Of course, he is not the only one with quirks.  I have a thing about eyebrow hair.  For some reason it really bothers me when eyebrow hair goes the wrong way.  Which basically means any way that is not lying flat in with the others.  It gives me (as my daughter says) the jiggs.  I get a feeling similar to that of fingernails on a chalkboard all because I feel as if the hair is going the wrong way.  I don’t care if your eyebrows are bushy, thin or just one long line, but the hair needs to be lying flat.  Wanna take a wild guess about what my husband enjoys doing to torture me?  Yep, rubs the hair the wrong way.  If he can manage it, he will do it to my eyebrows which really gives me the jiggs.  Otherwise he settles for messing up the kids’ or his own and laughs gleefully the whole time. 

These are some fun little ways we pester each other (I mean, come on, we are too old for pulling pig tails now, right?).  But it is all done with love and we make sure to never cross the line with it.

Despite these quirks I am happy to say that I love my husband even when he is annoying the heck out of me by rubbing my eyebrows the wrong way.  He loves me despite the fact I have no problem stopping a game in the middle and just declaring whoever is the closest the winner. And I know my kids love each other even when they are beyond annoyed with their siblings.  
​