Monday, February 4, 2013

Things About Me That May or May Not Be Odd



This is me circa 1995, the scrubbed out face is someone I am no longer friends with. Nor do I still smoke cigarettes or drink beer. I am all classy these days. White wine spritzers and BBQ Shapes.

I was tagged for an Inspiring Blogger award recently by Nadja, and it's been a long time since I've done one of these, so I thought would be fun. I am supposed to give you 5 odd habits of mine, but I'm a rebel - and not an especially odd one - so instead I'll just tell you some random things about me that may or may not be odd.

1. I hate feet. I could never touch anyone’s feet and I hate people touching mine. I have also unfollowed people on various social platforms because they continually post pictures of their feet.

2. I’m afraid of clowns and heights, both of which are common, but I also have a fear of nuns and balloons. The balloon one has a simple explanation – I am easily startled and whenever I see a balloon I just wait nervously for it to pop. When Noodles was little she would get offered balloons from those costumed spruikers in shopping centres and she would always say, “No thank you. My mum is scared of balloons.” <3 The nun one I’m not sure about. I was raised Catholic, but except for my grandmother no one was especially religious and I didn’t go to a Catholic school. However, whenever I see a nun I get really jumpy and nervous, like some people do when they see a police officer. Interesting possible cause: a palm reader told me many years ago that I had been a nun in a past life, but that I had been sent there by my family and didn’t want to go so I was really unhappy. I don’t know if I believe that (the logical, rational, atheist side of me says that’s a crock) but it does seem like an odd coincidence.

3. I have hitched a ride on a boat. When I was a teenager my then best friend sneaked out of a holiday house we were staying at to go and see her boyfriend, after her mum had told her she wasn’t allowed to. I went with her because I didn’t really have much choice, and we walked around the beach but got stuck in the middle of the water when it got more and more muddy. We had an unclimbable rock face on one side and heading back into the mud on the other, and we were only wearing thongs on our feet. A speedboat went past so we stopped them and they gave a us a ride to a nearby island, which turned out to be a military shooting range! We were descended upon by soldiers who lectured us angrily about how we could have been killed and drove us to their entrance gate and rang our parents. Needless to say, neither of us was allowed to venture out of our houses except to go to school for quite some time.

4. I hate massages. They make me feel nauseous.

5. I’m very solitary. No matter how much I like a person, I have a limited tolerance for being in their company – I really like my own space. I struggle with work sometimes because I am forced to interact with a lot of people in my job, but it’s not as bad as it used to be when I was on the customer service side of things. I had to deal with dozens and dozens of people a day and I would go home and just not want to speak to anyone. Having said that, I am pretty good with people when I want to be. Or when I’m being paid to be.

6. Toys with faces creep me out. Dolls, teddy bears, stuffed toys, anything with eyes. I think it goes back to when I was really little and saw an episode of Fantasy Island where a bunch of toys would come to life at night and be all sinister. And I was also really young when I saw that crazy movie with the evil doll chasing Karen Black around. When I went to bed at night I always had to have all the dolls and stuffed toys shut away in the cupboard, with the exception of a couple of teddies I had on either side of me to fool burglars. My cousin had a clown doll and whenever I stayed at her house I made her put it in another room – I could not go to sleep while that thing was looking at me, it just freaked me out.

I tag:
Natalie
Jessica
Jacquie
Liz
Jade

21 comments:

  1. I'm afraid of clowns, heights and balloons too, I'm also very solitary too. I think I'm a good, nice person, I just don't love being around people, which can suck because I've got a bigish family so there seems to be always some function on that I can't avoid. I shall do this tag! :P

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    1. I just like quiet time and not having to be 'on'. That's why I love the internet - I can interact with people when I feel like it and switch it off when I don't.

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  2. Oh Dee, fear of nuns? However did you survive AHS this season? You and Jade hooked me on to the first and I saw the whole second season all by myself, alone at home and all eeeek!
    You look beautiful in that photo. This may be the first or second time I am seeing your face! Can't believe!

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  3. Ok, these are some strange strange things! Except for the fact that you are a solitary person, I can definitely identify with that!

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    1. I thought I wasn't being strange enough! I was trying to think of some really weird things and these were the best I could come up with. ;-)

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  4. Ok, I'm really glad I'm not one to post very many pictures of myself, let alone my feet! ;D On a totally different note, you are very pretty! I love how you erased your ex friend in the picture. I need to do that with a picture I have of my cat. It was over 6 years ago, and I had just gotten my cat. He was a kitten, and he passed out on the couch in the cutest position. Unfortunately, my ex totally ruined the picture because his jeans are in the corner (where he was sitting at the time). Stupid ex ruining cute kittah pictures!

    Also, that boat incident sounds terrifying! We have a huge lake like 45 minutes from where we live, and my boyfriend has a blow up boat with a small trolling motor. It actually hauls ass despite its size. So on the 4th of July a couple years ago, we were on the boat drinking beer in the middle of the lake. And I had to pee. My bf just told me to pee off the side of the boat, but I was too shy so I plopped in the water. Well, I couldn't get back in the boat for the life of me. It was getting dark and there was no one around to help. So my boyfriend had me hold on for dear life to the side of the boat while the trolling motor VERY SLOWLY hauled me to safety by the shore. I never clung to anything so tightly in my life. I was terrified the whole time, and the motor was so slow because it had my weight right next to it. So that's my scary boat story! Not nearly as scary as yours, but still scary!

    I'm glad you did this tag! <3

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    1. Oh, that's so scary! That beats my boat story hands down. I actually wasn't all that scared until soldiers started yelling at me. It was more annoying than anything else - my friend was one of those people who would fall insanely in love with a different guy every week and she'd always carry on like whoever it was was her ONE TRUE LOVE and get all dramariffic over it.

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    2. I know your pain- I had a friend EXACTLY the same way. We were on a trip to Mexico with my parents and some family friends, and she fell "in love" with one of the guys that was my parents Friends' son. The night before we had to go home, she went on and on about how he was the love of her life and that she wanted to die since we were going back home. She was quite dramatic, heh. She's married with a kid now, I believe.

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  5. Ditto on clowns and heights. I think clowns are creepy because they're always smiling, and that immediately puts me on guard, like "what are you hiding?" Oh, and Pennywise. 'Nuff said.

    Heights because I have this weird fear that I might just lose control of my body and impulsively jump off whatever it is if there is no guard rail or something holding me back. And totally relate to the solitary stuff, working with the public drains my emotional energy terribly!

    Heh, when I was little I had this doll named Sandy the Sandman. He had a little star shaped knob on his belly that would play a lullaby when you turned it. I LOVED that doll until a friend told me he looked like Chucky. I was so mad, because I didn't realize it until then that he really did, and I had to get rid of him after that!

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    1. You're right - the clown smile is really eerie. As for Pennywise, he's the reason I don't walk close to (or look down) drains!

      I'm the same with heights - if I have to walk over a bridge or stand on a balcony I get a fear that something will make me jump. Isn't that weird!

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  6. I don't do tags much anymore but I'll do this one. FOR YOU, DEE.

    I'm with you on 1, 4 and 5. I don't feel nauseous after a massage but they don't make me feel more relaxed. I never feel the need for one. It was also really awkward when this kid from the same high school turned out to be the masseuse one day while I was trying to give this massaging thing another chance. IT WAS NOT RELAXING AT ALL.

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    1. Aw, Liz - you're such a trooper! A massage from someone I knew would be SO awkward. I don't think I could do it - I'd just turn and leave.

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  7. I will think of you every time I do a feet/shoe post, Dee.

    I am utterly petrified of heights.

    I TOO SHALL DO THIS TAG FOR YOU DEE!!!

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    1. I don't mind shoes, it's just feet that squick me out.

      And I would love it if you do this tag!

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  8. We have #5 in common. None of my retail jobs lasted. I had to change my career because I don't like having to talk to people if I don't want to Lol

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    1. It's so hard to be in customer service when you don't really like being around a lot of people. :-/

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  9. I see we both had the short platinum 'do thing goin' on :).
    And the Karen Black movie, AHHHHHHHH!!!

    I had nightmares about that for a looooong time.

    I hate the sound of popping balloons as well. It triggers some Fight Or Flight response in me that is seriously illogical but there it is, nonetheless.

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    1. I got my platinum do when Madonna got hers, but I clung to it for years after she moved on, lol! I've actually been considering going back to it - I only stopped because I started losing a lot of hair a few years ago (unrelated to hair colouring).

      Oh, that Karen Black movie. It must be 30 years since I last saw it but I still shudder when I think about it!

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  10. I hate feet also! I have some anti-foot fetish or something. I don't mind pictures of feet in heels/shoes really, but I can't stand to look at bare feet. I'm also super self-conscious about having people over my house because eventually someone will take off their socks.

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    1. If it were up to me, I'd make it illegal to be barefoot. ;-)

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