What Weird Quirks/Habits Do You Escapists Have?

[Xprimentyl]

I went to Starbucks to grab a coffee this morning, and while I was at the little sugar/creamer kiosk preparing my coffee, I noticed I was doing, yet again, something I?ve done (somewhat) subconsciously for years: whenever I get my coffee, I take off the little cardboard, heat-protection sleeve and put it back on ensuring its glued seam lies directly on top of the cup?s glued seam, then I put the lid back on where the sipping hole is directly opposite those seams. I don?t know when or why I started doing that, but I know whenever it?s not just so, the cup just feels? off? Uneven? Unbalanced? This got me thinking about my other odd quirks and those others may have.

Another ?tick? of mine regards adhesive barcode labels on cigarette lighters. I?m a smoker (bad life choice, I know,) and whenever I see a lighter, I have to peel the little adhesive label off of it. My friends all know this about me, so they?re in the habit of surrendering their new lighters to me for peeling even before I ask; that, or they?ll stare blankly at me until I realize an unpeeled lighter is in plain view. One friend in particular has made a game out of it; he?ll buy a new lighter, show it to me and bets I can?t get it from him and peel it by the end of the night. I?ll wait, I?ll watch, and after a few drinks, he?s a little less vigilant, and that?s when I strike. I?ve got a 100% success rate so far; that?s either a testament to my relentlessly obsessive behavior or his clockwork functioning alcoholism?

The last quirk I?ll admit before turning this thread over to you lot is my staunch aversion to the condiments ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise. I don?t just dislike them; I loathe them in the way one might loathe feces. Oddly enough, it?s been over 30 years since I?ve had them, so I can?t begin to tell you what they even taste like, but I CAN tell you I will never, in this life or the next, willingly put them in my mouth. It likely stems back to my childhood when my mom would take me to a fast food restaurant and try to order me a plain hamburger (this is before ?plain? was a common menu option they?d invariably get it wrong, and I?d get a burger gushing with that yellow and/or red spunk. My mom would simply ?scrap it off? despite my saying I could still taste it (it soaks into the fucking bun, for Christ?s sake I?d protest, cry, but she?d make me eat it anyway. Little does she know the ?damage? she?s done; as an adult, I can?t even look at that shit without visibly turning my nose up.

Ok, your turn, weirdos; whatcha got?

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I'm not sure if this counts as weird. I personally don't think it does, but as a millennial I have been assured it is:

I don't have a social media account of any kind. No Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, Tumblr, Pintrest, whatever that dating swipe left/right one is, that new trending one that came out last month, nothing. I do technically have a YouTube account, although that's only because Google automatically creates one in your name if you have a gmail account.
On that note though, I don't like/comment or subscribe to anyone on YouTube.

I remember reading once that having a social media account when you're not a celebrity is akin to standing in a massively crowded room and just saying a random sentence out-loud and expecting everyone to hear you. And the Celebrities have megaphones. And I view social media as very unhealthy.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I don't do anything weird, it's everybody else that's weird!

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I despise mayonnaise, ketchup and often don't want cheese on my hamburgers.

These are all things that are stapled onto most menus as standard so I have to run through the list of No's before I get my fast food. Usually draws a look from strangers in my car I'm giving a ride to.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I sometimes walk with one arm behind my back. I've had people ask me if my back was sore because of it. Nope, that's just how I walk sometimes.

 

[Kenbo Slice]

Apparently I say "right on" a lot. I never noticed it until someone told me that's my response to everything. But it's just part of my vocabulary now.

 

[InflatableHippo]

I keep coming back to this site

 

[maninahat]

I always peel off labels on beer bottles. Some call it sexual frustration, I call it a useful trick to tell which is your beer at a party.

Also, toenails weird me out and I can only cut them with scissors - clippers are torturous to use.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

I'm not sure if this counts as weird. I personally don't think it does, but as a millennial I have been assured it is:

I don't have a social media account of any kind. No Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, Tumblr, Pintrest, whatever that dating swipe left/right one is, that new trending one that came out last month, nothing. I do technically have a YouTube account, although that's only because Google automatically creates one in your name if you have a gmail account.
On that note though, I don't like/comment or subscribe to anyone on YouTube.

I remember reading once that having a social media account when you're not a celebrity is akin to standing in a massively crowded room and just saying a random sentence out-loud and expecting everyone to hear you. And the Celebrities have megaphones. And I view social media as very unhealthy.

Well, forums are a form of social media though. I mean, they're the best kind of social media definitely, but still. Also, Steam can be considered a light form of social media as well, depending on how you use it.

Otherwise, yeah. This is pretty much me too. I do have a Reddit account but I only really use it to ask questions in the more technical sub-reddits.

I sometimes walk with one arm behind my back. I've had people ask me if my back was sore because of it. Nope, that's just how I walk sometimes.

Don't lie to me. You're carrying a concealed weapon, aren't you.

 

[Jeteye]

Don't ask me why but I have to do a lot of things symmetrically. If I spin around to the left I have to also to spin around to the right. If my left arm itches I have to scratch the same spot on the right. If I swat at a fly with my left hand I also have to take then same number of shots with my right hand.

I also feel completed to do thing on even numbers. Volume on the TV has to go up by 2 or finish on an even number. Passwords and usernames have to be even numbers. Clicking a mouse, putting sugar packets in coffee, cleaning the dishes with a sponge, chewing, drinking water from a fountain, if the quantity, motion, whatever can be easily counted, I have to do it in 2's or an even number of times.

 

[Kyrian007]

I don't ever take the same route on a return trip. Doesn't matter where I'm going, if the next place is a return to where I was... I have to take an alternate route. Even if its just going around the block and approaching my work or house from a different direction. Or I'll make a quick stop somewhere so it isn't a round trip anymore. I'm not really even sure why I'm doing this, but I've been doing it ever since I learned how to drive.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

It's not something you could ever notice, but whenever I'm anywhere with square shapes (bathroom tiles, bricks in walls, pavement slabs), I always start drawing lines across them in my mind and thinking what angle a line would need to be to cut straight from one corner to the other.

I've also been told multiple times that I talk in my sleep, though it's yet to be recorded.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I sometimes walk with one arm behind my back. I've had people ask me if my back was sore because of it. Nope, that's just how I walk sometimes.

Don't lie to me. You're carrying a concealed weapon, aren't you.

Alright you got me, I'm concealing the weapon that I don't have behind my back.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Volume on the TV has to go up by 2 or finish on an even number.

This is a fairly common one. I know easily a half-dozen people (myself included) who absolutely *must* have the volume of things set to multiples of 2 and/or 5.

OT - My beer has to be placed on the bar in the same place. It doesn't matter where it's placed originally, but as soon as my pint touches the bar for the first time from then on that and any future pints must go in that exact spot. It's a hold-over from when I used to work behind a bar when I was younger and I used to get sick of punters spotting my bar with dozens of little condensation rings because they couldn't just put their pints back where they picked them up from, and because I hated it as a bar worker I ensure I don't do it as a bar customer.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Alright you got me, I'm concealing the weapon that I don't have behind my back.

I knew it. You treacherous fiend.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP

I meant more in the use of my real name to interact online. No RealSilentPony tweeting @RealArnoxthe1, no RealSilentPony liking a picture of a yawning cat because that's totally me in the morning, and liking MMA because I'm like totally a fighter.
Just self aggrandizement and insecurity masquerading as social interactions.

OP: Thought of another one, and again, may not be a quirk so much as...trauma? When I first saw the Truman show(at like 6 or 7), I was rocked. I was convinced to my core I was on a reality TV show and my parents were actors, and acted as if people were always watching. I kept trying to find cameras in my house, catch other cars looking my direction, wondering if I walked around the block if an entirely new group of people would be there, etc...
Took me a very very very long time to get out of it. And this whole surveillance state isn't helping! I still get chills when I go to starbucks, pay cash, and my phone goes 'Bleep-Bloop, SilentPony would you like to rate your Starbucks transaction?'
Hate it.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Apparently I say "right on" a lot. I never noticed it until someone told me that's my response to everything. But it's just part of my vocabulary now.

I use 'fair enough' for basically any interaction with someone. Friend is going on a trip, yeah fair enough. Someone needs help moving a couch, sure fair enough. Dog needs a belly rub, aww fair enough!

Its a very versatile phrase

 

[Xprimentyl]

I despise mayonnaise, ketchup and often don't want cheese on my hamburgers.

These are all things that are stapled onto most menus as standard so I have to run through the list of No's before I get my fast food. Usually draws a look from strangers in my car I'm giving a ride to.

Ah, a kindred spirit! I do like cheese on my burgers, but you can keep that goopy shit. On the rare occasion I actually get a burger from a fast food joint, I always go inside; too much room for error in a drive-thru. I hate when they read my order back and they?re far less specific than I was, often leaving out the part where I said I?d kidnap their family if there was so much as a drop of ketchup on my food.

OT - My beer has to be placed on the bar in the same place. It doesn't matter where it's placed originally, but as soon as my pint touches the bar for the first time from then on that and any future pints must go in that exact spot. It's a hold-over from when I used to work behind a bar when I was younger and I used to get sick of punters spotting my bar with dozens of little condensation rings because they couldn't just put their pints back where they picked them up from, and because I hated it as a bar worker I ensure I don't do it as a bar customer.

My local bar uses coasters (to avoid the very spotting you mentioned,) and as a likely extension of my quirk for alignment mentioned in my first post, my bottle or glass HAS to be dead center on the coaster; too far from center, and it?s a reflex that my hand will shoot out and correct the gross infraction. (Also, the sides of square coasters have to be parallel to the sides of a square table.)

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Thought of another one, and again, may not be a quirk so much as...trauma? When I first saw the Truman show(at like 6 or 7), I was rocked. I was convinced to my core I was on a reality TV show and my parents were actors, and acted as if people were always watching. I kept trying to find cameras in my house, catch other cars looking my direction, wondering if I walked around the block if an entirely new group of people would be there, etc...
Took me a very very very long time to get out of it. And this whole surveillance state isn't helping! I still get chills when I go to starbucks, pay cash, and my phone goes 'Bleep-Bloop, SilentPony would you like to rate your Starbucks transaction?'
Hate it.

Bleep-Bloop, SilentPony would you like to rate your Escapist experience?

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I also feel completed to do thing on even numbers. Volume on the TV has to go up by 2 or finish on an even number.

I'm the same way except with multiples of 5 instead of 2.