Welcome ICLW'ers!

I know this is a little early but I won't be online over the weekend to write a post. I didn't participate last month as I was feeling rather down in the dumps. I usually do a post about my situation and give a little background. This month for ICLW I'm going to do something a little different. I'm going to show all of you that I really am quite the quirky (as I don't like the word weird) girl. I'm going to list some things about myself that a lot of people don't know about me. It might make me out to be borderline OCD, but it's who I am and I feel that my readers should know more about what makes me, me. So here goes:


- I count steps. I kid you not, every set of stairs I take, I count them. I can't help it. Even at home. Especially on the way down. I often walk very fast and it's helpful to know what step I'm on so that I don't miss any.

- If I'm walking on a sidewalk or on a floor with a pattern of lines or squares, I try really hard to take an even number of steps in between the lines. It's insane really, but I have always been that way. And if I step on a line with my right foot I then have to step on a line with my left foot.

- I read every sign or plaque or poster in a waiting room or doctor's office at least once while I'm in the room. And as much as doctors make me wait, I sometimes read them all more than once. Every sentence, every word, even the copyright information. I felt rushed when I was recently in the vet's office and didn't get a chance to read every missing pet posting on their bulletin board.

- My closet (as well as BJ's and the Little Guy's) is color coded. I hang all the blue shirts together, all the green shirts together and so on. I can always tell when one of them has been putting their own clothes away (which doesn't happen often) because something will be out of place. I fix it and then fight the urge to tell them that they hung it in the wrong place. It's bad, I tell ya.

- When we go to bed at night, the sheet and covers have to be straight and the sheet has to be folded down over the top edge of the blanket. BJ has learned to just let me "fix" it because if I don't, I'm not comfortable and I can't relax. He thinks it's crazy, and I'm sure it is, but it's how I am and how I've always been.

- If I fold a piece of paper, the corners have to match up perfectly or I will refold them until they do. I can't stand folded paper that is not in a perfect fold.

- All my cash has to be facing the same way in my purse. And if I get a hold of BJ's wallet, all his cash is in order and facing the same way, too. I get this from my mother. I didn't know it until I was 16 but it's something that she passed on to me. When I worked in a retail drug store for 4 years I had the best looking cash drawer in the store. :-) I had a trick to help me notice when I needed to ask the manager for more change. I would turn one $5 or $1 bill upside down and when I reached it, I knew I needed more money. BJ was looking through the Little Guy's wallet last week to see how much money he had left after a shopping spree at the video game store and said, "TeeJay has been into your money....it's all facing the same way". I was caught. :-)

- The pillows on my bed have to be arranged a certain way or else I can't sleep well. I have a certain pillow that touches the headboard and then another pillow that leans up against that one and then the one I sleep on is placed vertically when it's bed time. When we travel, I take the sleeping pillow with me or else I can't sleep at all. When BJ gets the bed ready he doesn't usually put the pillows in the right order and then he just smiles at me when I rearrange them. There have been a few times when I woke up in the morning and realized that I didn't sleep very good and then I see the pillows out of order. I told him that I can always tell when they aren't on the bed right. What is wrong with me??

So there you have it...I'm certifiable. There are more things that I could list but I think I've done a pretty good job of letting y'all know how quirky I am.