You Freak.

Alrighty. Portia tagged me to list five weird habits, ones that make me a Highly Eccentric Person. Like Miss Bates in Emma, I'm tempted to say that the difficulty lies in limiting to so few, but here goes:
1) Fear of appearing partially clad in public. Every single morning in college, as I walked out of my dorm, I'd take two or three steps before pausing to do a little check. The check went like this: (applying quick pat to upper thighs, then lower rib area) "Skirt - shirt - OhThankGod!", after performance of which I could go on my merry way in peace of mind. I couldn't help it. I knew I'd gotten dressed, but had to check anyway. This probably stems from a nightmare of sitting through class naked or something, but other than that I really can't explain it.
2) I constantly play with words in my head. I have done this as long as I have been able to read, which is about 20 years now. Some random word will get stuck in my head and will spend the next several hours being absentmindedly taken apart, rearranged into other words, having its letters put into alphabetical order and/or given numerical values which are in turn played with every way possible, and finally put back together and dismissed in favour of new word-food. This happens every single day. Again - pointless, inexplicable habit, whose only merit thus far has been to give me a bit of an edge at Scrabble. Portia. Port. Pair. Rip. Tarp. Airport. AIOPRT, TRPOIA. 79. 16. 7...
3) I have difficulty saying my own name without stuttering, and therefore dread being asked. Seriously. I'll try to say it clearly when meeting someone new, or leaving a phone message, but all the five syllables run together and trip over each other and end up sounding like some sort of minor verbal seizure. If I do manage to say it clearly, it sounds like I'm not used to saying it (true) and am probably making it up.
4) Bellybuttons, navels, what you will, horrify me. They are so nasty. My biggest fear concerning future possible pregnancy is caused by the knowledge that most women's navels pop outwards in the later stages of pregnancy, and I don't think I could handle that. Ergh. Getting gag reflex just typing this.
5) For lack of better nomenclature, Need for sensory symmetry. If my left knee itches and I scratch it, I have to scratch my right knee in the corresponding spot as well. If I flex my right wrist, I have to flex my left. If I whack my right shin into the couch and rub it to ease the pain, I have to rub the left one too, even though it doesn't hurt. I can control this impulse if I really try, but it's like trying not to yawn during the rosary when the person two spots down has just yawned.

So. Wondering if I should be embarrassed, but realizing that most of us are secretly proud of our little quirks, so what the hey. Scrabble, anyone?

Tagging: Jedno, Nomikkh, and Wavelet. (Woo-hoo! I just learned how to link!)