6 Unspectacular Quirks

So I got tagged by my friend Chelsea to write 6 weird things about me. I may be doing it wrong, but oh well - here goes nothing.

1. I love birds! Mostly parrots or birds of prey. I have a strange little desire to someday get a falconers permit and own a peregrine falcon. Coupled with this love of birds, I have a unique stupid human trick. I can whistle like a parrot without using my mouth – it comes from my throat. I have used this on many occasions to ‘woo’ the hearts of many beautiful parrots into being my friends. I know – I’m weird!

2. I get WAY excited about the silliest things. For example, last night we were just about to eat dinner (which I had to snarf because I was already late for YW because I work so dang late) when the doorbell rang. Since we don’t often have unexpected company, and since I had informed him that there had been a salesman on the sidewalk when I pulled into our neighborhood 5 minutes earlier, Neil didn’t want me to answer it. I didn’t want to be rude if it happened to be someone else, so I went to get the door. The salesman was nearly to the sidewalk when I opened, and the minute he turned around and I could read his hat, I yelled for Neil to come quick – it was the COMCAST guy!! We have made numerous calls in the past year to Comcast to see when they would be available in our area, since all other options for TV or internet SUCK. And there they were! Finally in the neighborhood and getting people to sign up! To make a long story short, I was even more late for YW but on cloud 9 the rest of the night knowing that we would have MUCH faster internet as well as the Discovery channel and BYU football on The Mtn. by Thursday! (Too bad BYU has a bye week) What can I say, I guess I’m just easy to please!!

3. I’m slightly OCD. Not in the ‘germ-a-phobe’ way, but in the sense that I am picky about making sure things are uniform and even. An extreme example would be that all through middle and high school if I had a paper that I had written my name on (with pencil of course, since if I messed up in pen, it couldn’t be fixed) and I didn’t like the way it was written, I would erase it and re-write it. After 3 attempts, the previous writings would remain visible because an eraser couldn’t get it all completely, so I would throw the entire piece of paper away (even if there was nothing else on it.) I’ve calmed down a bit and am not that bad any more, but even playing Yahtzee with Neil the other night, I had to make sure all of the dice that are set aside are facing the same way. Once again, I know – I’m a freak!

4. I hate for my food to touch. This is a weird little pet-peeve, I know. People say all the time “It’s all going to end up in the same place anyway.” But the greatest part about eating is the chewing and tasting part. And when two things that were not intentionally put together end up touching on my plate, the whole bite transforms – often into something not as pleasant as the two bites would have been had they remained separate. Some things are tolerable, but most of the time I make every effort to not let them touch in the first place. I mean seriously, who wants jello in their mashed potatoes?? (Anyone who can answer ‘me’ to that question has some serious taste bud deficiencies!!)

5. I sleep with a humidifier on every night. Sadly, it generally doesn’t even have water in it. It started as a way to drown out my husband’s snoring when we were first married. (Sorry to disclose that fact Neil.) But I have now been conditioned to the noise and frankly, I can’t sleep well without it. I’m going to have a very rude awakening soon when I need to leave it off in order to hear Avery wake up in the night. I’ve tried numerous times to practice sleeping without it, but end up having a miserable night and generally end up getting up and turning it on before morning even comes. I’m in trouble! And I’ll learn exactly how much trouble very soon.

6. I’ve been stung by a jellyfish. Well, it’s technically not a true species of jellyfish – it’s called a Portuguese Man-of-War. It was while we were on our honeymoon in Jamaica. We had done all the sight-seeing we wanted to for the day and still had a little while before we had to be back on the boat. So we decided just to go to the beach and relax. We were a little more than waist deep in the water when it felt like something bit my hand and wouldn’t let go. I jumped because it scared me so bad, and then started frantically shaking my hand to get whatever was on it off (this made things worse, as I was dragging my hand back and forth through the tentacle.) Neil carried me to shore as a bunch of locals were running over trying to offer something for relief. As I’m screaming and bawling in pain, all I can think to say is “Someone find my camera!!” We had drifted from where our towels and backpacks were on shore, and I wanted to get a picture of my hand because despite being intensely painful, it looked really cool. We rushed back to the boat only to have the infirmary tell us that if we wanted to see the doctor, it would cost $150 JUST to have him paged – let alone the fee to see him, and any treatment he would do. So we bought a $5 bottle of hydrocortisone cream and went back to our room. On the way up, the toxin glands in my armpits kicked in to keep the poison from spreading to my body and they felt like they were on fire. Then I started going into shock as I could no longer move my hand or fingers. Luckily we had met another couple our age (who actually got married in the sealing room next to us at the exact same time in the SL Temple) that same day and he and Neil were able to give me a blessing. The paralysis went away by the next day, and the numbness subsided shortly after that. We even swam with stingrays the next day (What was I thinking?!) The welts lasted a few months, but the memory will last a lifetime. And frankly, I look back on it as a humorous experience now. How many people can say they’ve been stung by the second most poisonous jellyfish in the world??

(This was taken once someone went to find my camera)

Now, here are the terms and conditions for those of you who are going to be "tagged" by me:

Link the person who tagged you

Mention the rules on your blog.

List 6 unspectacular quirks about you.

Tag 6 other bloggers by linking them.

Now, I tag Lindsey, Laura, Jenn, Tiffany, Suzie, and Loni. Have fun with this one - think hard!