We all have quirks, something peculiar to our personality that makes us unique. What are your quirks?

Asking my family if they have tickets to the gun show, Christmas 2007.

I’ll go first.

As a child, I used to fall sleep to Soft Rock. My family wasn’t part of a band, and my parents weren’t roadies – it was because my mom wanted to get me used to background noise .  She would turn on the radio during bedtime, and I’d fall asleep singing many night singing along to the song.  She did this so she could finish up chores or do whatever needed to be done without having to tiptoe around the house. It’s genius, really, but one of the side effects is that I can sing the lyrics to 90% of Soft Rock songs. I know the words to any song by the Supremes, Dionne Warwick, Bee Gees (and of course their bro Barry Gibb), Lionel Ritchie, Air Supply, or Phil Collins. Sometimes, like tonight, I serenade Rene and Chuy with these easy listening tunes. Do they appreciate it? Perhaps.  I’ll be able to tell once they take those pillows off their heads.

Whenever I have to use a knob or dial to adjust the volume, I always turn it the wrong way first. For example, if I want to turn down the radio, I turn it all the way up instead, causing me to jump up like an old lady before turning it in the right direction. This happens without fail. When I was 16 I worked at a shoe store, and when it was time to close shop and turn off the radio I always screwed it up. My boss thought I had some sort of motor skills impediment, but really it’s an involuntary thing. Ask me to turn off your radio and I’ll accidentally blast it. That’s the way I roll.

As a child I had a hard time telling my right from my left, and that situation was remedied when I fell down a flight of concrete stairs. (Turns out you have to watch where you’re going, especially when stairs are involved.) I hurt my right shoulder, and ever since then I could tell left from right because that shoulder pops. A bit extreme for directional orientation, I know, but you’ll never catch me getting confused and asking which way left is.  Unless, of course, you say it’s my other left.

Sometimes when people ask me for the time I look at my watch, see that it’s 3:15, but blurt out something random like “4:38” instead. This usually elicits a confused response, like “What! It’s 4:30 already?!” It’s because I’m thinking about something else when I get asked about the time and it muddles my response.  I really do mean that it’s 3:15.   I also do this with people’s names  – I’ll call them a name not their own and stick to it. I used to work with a lady named Priscilla, and I used to call her Patricia all the time. Yes, I am aware that Priscilla and Patricia are nothing alike, save for the P’s at the beginning, but every time I looked at her that’s what I wanted to call her. I eventually did learn her name, after I repeated it silently to myself before I addressed her. What can I say? I think Priscilla is an ugly name – I was just trying to give her a free upgrade.

What about you? Share one of your quirks.