Okay, I’m cheating, the “M” stands for meme, but I just found this on Tribe’s blog.
1) I’m not superstitious, but I act as if I am. I don’t walk under ladders (but, really, it’s unsafe) and I hate the no. 13. You’ll notice that if comments here stall at 13, I’ll usually post again, just to get the number going. That said, I sneer at cities that have no 13th floors listed in their elevators, just jump to 14. Baltimore acknowledges the existence of 13th floors.
2) I re-read children’s books, particulary young adult books written in the 1950s and early 60s. Lenora Mattingly Weber, Anne Emery and Rosamond DuJardin are my favorites, in that order.
3) My mother still gives me an Easter basket every year, although it’s now down to one delightful object. (Last year was a porcelain pill box, shaped like a carrot.)
4) When I used to climb the two flights of stairs to the Sun newsroom, I often recited “If They Ask Me, I Could Write a Book” in my head. “A, B, C, D, E, F, G, I never learned to spell, at least not well . . .” And when I was younger, my father realized that I counted the broken stripes on the highway as they disappeared beneath the car. To his credit, he didn’t get weirded out by this.
5) I eat peanut M&M’s in a bizarre and wholly ritualistic way that I simply cannot divulge in detail here.
Back to my galleys.
I recently went back and read all the Heinlein books that had thrilled me as a kid (Starship Troopers, Glory Road, Farmer in the Sky, etc.) and was amazed at how little I enjoyed them. They weren’t intended as young adult books, I don’t think, but maybe we were a younger, more hopeful society when he wrote them.
I rarely reread books; there are so many books I’ve never read the first time yet. As a girl I read all the Nancy Drew books and liked the early ones before they made Nancy more modern. That didn’t seem right!
Laura, you’re not a little obessive there are you, counting those white stripes on the road?! I grew up in a very small town and riding the bus to school, I used to count fence posts. So, city girl, country girl obsessions–we find a way no matter where we are, I guess!
About the M&M’s. I don’t like Peanut M&M’s, but one day when I worked for Continental I was desperate for chocolate, and all they had was Peanut M&M’s. So I would crack them with my teeth, take out the peanut, put them on a napkin and enjoy my bit of chocolate. Well, one of the girls I worked with came in and sat next to me, and apparently didn’t notice HOW I was eating my peanuts. She asked if she could have some of the peanuts ( much to the horror of my other co-workers) Who was I to say no? I told her if she wanted she could eat all of them. I thought that was a little bizarre.
When she actually noticed how I was eating them, and leaving the peanuts on her napkin after they had been in my mouth – I thought she was going to barf.
So Laura, is that how you eat Peanut M&M’s ? I am insanely curious!
Years ago, a friend told me her son had OCD and described how this manifested itself in his behavior. “I’m a lot like that,” I said. She sighed and said politely: “Everyone says that.” So I’ve been careful since then not to throw the term around too casually.
That said . . . I do seem to be drawn to patterns and counting and other slightly odd behavior.
As iPods were rising in popularity, I heard a radio report — IIRC, from a Newsweek reporter — who was convinced that his iPod had a marked preference for Steely Dan. (I think I’ve mentioned this story before, but it bears repeating.) The bottom line was that the iPod, on shuffle, is truly random, but it’s human nature to try and find patterns.
As for how I eat M&M’s . . . well, Marika, you cracked the case. But I never do it when anyone else is around and I eat the chocolate. I think peanuts that have been liberated from the candy coating are the best peanuts of all.
I think IggyPod (my iPod) has a preference for Norah Jones! Out of nowhere he’ll play 5 of her songs in a row. and I don’t even have that many of her songs on my iPod. Now, I like Norah Jones, obviously, but sometimes it’s just not time for her. Iggy likes to push.
I just ran up the flirst flight of steps in my house to make sure it wasn’t 13.
1) I hate when people leave the spoon in their beverge and drink it.
2) I used to make my sister look under our bunk bed to make sure there was no one under it before I went to sleep on the top bunk.
3) I still look in the backseat of my car before driving to make sure no one is hiding back there.
4) I believe that if I do someone wrong it will come back to me.
5)When I was a child I used to imagine myself dancing along the side of the road while driving anywhere.
I count steps and the steps in my house number 13. Does it disturb me? If I’d known, I might not have bought the house.
That my office is the same number of steps up as the traditional gallows is too much to contemplate.
1. When I was little and lived in the city, I used to race to get into the house before a bus or trolley came upon our house, thinking someone in there was watching me, and I thought if I moved fast enough they would not see me.
2. I hate that too, Vickie – people who leave a spoon in their tea or coffee.
3. Junior Mints have this little dimple in them and when I eat them, I always have to put one of my canine teeth in the center of that depression in the mint. My tongue pushes the mint into the tooth to guide it into position. If I don’t, the whole experience of eating them is ruined for me.
4. I rotate the sheets in my linen closet so they get equal wear. The ones that just came out of the washer/dryer are last, and then next week they’ll be next to the last.
5. I have re-read the Little House on the Prairie books many times over the years and they get BETTER each time, I don’t know why! And I named my daughter Laura Elizabeth after the author, Laura Ingalls Wilder. My Laura is now a writer/copy editor at a newspaper in Virginia, where a coworker of hers has a daughter who is ALSO named after Laura Ingalls Wilder!!
I’m a little late to the party, but I must confess I am superstitious.
(1)I still can’t step on cracks on the sidewalks.
(2)I pay close attention to airline attendants while they go through the safety routine before a flight.
(3) I won’t go above fifteen floors in a building. Not for anyone, not for anything!
(4) I’m a neat freak – except in my office. Chaos there comforts me. Oh, my bag is a mess. On purpose. A small effort to satisfy my rebelious nature.
(3)
Elaine,
And is your belief that (4) must be bracketed by (3) and (3) also one of your idiosyncracies? <g>