Oh, the quirkiness of me?

A month ago Veronica Mitchell tagged me for a meme where I am required to list 6 quirky traits about myself. At the time I declared myself dreadfully dull and claimed the need for time to think. I admit now that this may have been a ploy to save this meme for a rainy writing day. However, it turned out to be the honest-to-boring truth. In this past month, as I have attempted to start this post several times, I have come up blank. Faults? Oh, I have those in droves. But quirks?

Nada. Zip.

And I was distraught! How will my family ever miss me when I am gone if I am devoid of charming oddities? For, as anyone who has ever who has ever seen a sappy movie knows, it is not one's faithful love or devotion that their family misses but their idiosyncrasies. I have never heard a character bemoaning the loss of the mother who cooked them dinner every night for the last 30 years. No. It's always some random thing like, "She would always tap dance while she was dusting" or "She could never pass an animal on the side of the road without stopping" or "She always read the last page of a book first."

So, in absolute desperation to leave a legacy of annoying habits for my own children to miss after I have gone on, I have compiled the following list of almost-quirky traits.

1. I am a compulsive eavesdropper. I find myself compelled, in public places, to listen to conversations taking place around me. I simply cannot help myself. This can occasionally cause a problem. For example, I would not suggest interrupting a heartfelt conversation with your girlfriend to exclaim, "That woman sitting behind me just had a nose job! Can you see her? Can you tell?"

2. I really, really love this song.

And I sing it all the time. Almost every day in fact. Sometimes sweetly to my children. Sometimes loudly and obnoxiously when they display their irritation with my parenting a bit too overtly. There is nothing like an off key chorus of "Love you forever and forever. Love you with all my heart" to encourage someone to not find you annoying anymore. You should try it. It helps.

3. I have a fetish for cereal. I will eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, midnight snack, you name it. And I like all kinds. From Lucky Charms to Fiber One, I don't discriminate. Jerry Seinfeld has nothing on me.

4. I detest background noise. I think this may be related to quirk #1, as I am just incapable of tuning it out. I can't stand to have the television or radio on unless I am specifically watching something. I have never been someone that can read while my husband watches television or fall asleep while the radio is on. It's not that I detest noise specifically, just noise unrelated to what I am doing. It's a losing battle for someone who chose to have four children. I am constantly walking around turning things off. I seem to be on perpetually hopeless quest for silence.

5. I tap dance while I'm dusting. Oy. I am really having to dig deep here. I read in the bathtub, which tends to make my books somewhat, um...wilted. I had to stop doing this with my Bible as it was becoming embaressing to pull out this warped crispy mess at my bible studies. This habit, among with some other issues we won't mention, resulted in a nasty parting of ways with my local public library. I am still mourning the breakup.

6. We have an area rug in the center of our living room. There used to be a coffee table on it but one of the older kids broke it and we were so broke the Weekids enjoyed the open space so much that we decided not to replace it until they were older. So now we just have a big empty rug, which is great. Whenever a snappy tune comes on the television, (and snappy tunes come around more often than one would think) I drag the kids onto the rug to join me in what Ben calls "the jumping dance." It's the Chaotic family mosh pit. The Weekids love it. The older two used to love it.

And someday they will again. When I am dead and gone the mosh pit thing is the only annoying endearing quirk I have left them with to regale their own children.

And now for the tagging...

I tag Slouching Mom! Oh I kid. Just wanted to see if your head would explode, Slouchy. (Poor dear has been tagged for 48 different facts so far and she's such a sweetie she just keeps spitting them out. And they are all interesting too. Amazing.)

Seriously though...
I tag Chrissy because she was adorably funny and quirky in high school and I would love to know she still is. Becky because she just started blogging and anyone with a masters degree in Puppetry simply must be quirky. And Catherine, because I love her writings and Asher stories and I would like to know more about her.

And as Veronica said, if one of your quirks happens to be that you detest Memes, well I'm okay with that too.