Seven Weird Things

Thanks, Rosemarie, for the tag! I didn't think that there were many weird things about old, boring me, but, as it turns out, I'm a complete bundle of weirdness!

The Rules:

Link to the person who tagged me, list 7 weird things about myself and then tag 7 others to play along. And, most importantly, let them know they have been tagged.

1. I am hopelessly sentimental. I tend to feel blue when my surroundings or circumstances are altered, even though I do very well with change over time. For this reason, I'm completely surprised I'm not a hoarder living in a house filled with mountains of aging bric-a-brac, boxes of used Zip-Loc bags, and stiffening gum wrappers.

2. I'm a perfectionist, and this causes me to put things I would like to accomplish completely off or neglect people if I don't feel I have the perfect amount of time or energy they deserve from me. I'm all or nothing this way at times, and it can make me look like a jerk or lazy when I don't consider myself either of these things.

3. My imagination runs rampant. As a child, I was my very own source of entertainment. I have always been a daydreamer, and my mother still has one of my grade school report cards that confirms this. If I don't like where I am, I simply go someplace else...in my mind.

4. I prefer to sit with my back to the wall in a public place, if possible. I also feel uncomfortable in the presence of strangers wearing bulky coats, especially when I can't see their hands. That's what a little posttraumatic stress disorder tends to do to a person. This has become a fact of life and usually doesn't affect me terribly, but about once a year I'm in a restaurant or bank and have to get up and leave.

5. I'm all about olfaction. When I am feeling sad or upset, I light candles, clean, or open a window to have certain scents around me. I have been known to drive to the store for a particular scented candle, perfume, lotion, or cleanser. Since my pregnancies, my nose has only become more sensitive, which can be a real pain. There are black beetles that live around our house which occasionally find their way inside, and I can smell them for an average of three days, even though I can rarely locate them, while my husband usually cannot smell them at all. I sometimes end up with a pounding headache. The scent of chlorine makes me sick to my stomach because of my experiences at swimming lessons as a child. My favorite scents are cut grass, baking turkey and stuffing, Clinique Happy perfume, Pine-Sol, wet sagebrush, baby powder, leather, vanilla, citrus, and gasoline/motor oil. My least favorite: The particular type of perfume some former horribly catty roommates used to bathe themselves in, wet dogs, blood, apples, rubbing alcohol, horses, and body odor. When we moved here, there was a dead kitten in the wall, which only I could smell on hot days for three years. So, also on the least favorite list: Dead kittens.

6. I can't stand a completely quiet environment unless I'm reading a book, in which case it must be perfectly quiet. Since I lived alone for so long, I have always needed the television or radio on at home or in the car.

7. I am in love with words and word origins, especially Latin. Medical words really get my motor running, especially words like salpingo-oophorectomy, disdiadochokinesia, and sphygmomanometer. Color me a hopeless nerd.

As usual, I am not tagging anyone in particular but invite anyone who needs a fun distraction to play along. Let me know if you do!