yes, i like being quirky.

Every so often, the “20 Things You Didn’t Know About Me” posts make their way around Facebook…I call this the “Holiday Fruitcake” post, as it’s passed along around once a year. Although it’s great to learn this person getting an unusual superlative in high school and that person who once got stuck in an elevator with Donny Osmond, a lot of the facts given are great, but they rarely have that missing ingredient of quirkiness.

We all have those unusual and random thoughts, experiences and ideas that we don’t expect anyone to understand (and in some cases, we’re still trying to figure out ourselves). Over the last 50 years, I’ve accumulated a lifetime of quirky memories….fasten your seatbelts…..

10 Incredibly Quirky Things That People Don’t Know About Me, That They’ll Probably Never Understand, And I Really Don’t Give A Shit:

1. I have 111 pairs of socks, and 68 pairs of underwear – I just never throw the old pairs away. I have New Balance socks where my heel sticks out and Fruit of the Loom underwear that’s a thread or two away from being a loincloth with a waistband, but I still wear them even after buying new pairs to replace them. My dresser drawers are stuffed.

2. When people turn off the car without turning off the radio first drives me batshit crazy.

3. I dream in different languages that I don’t speak. I attribute this to my French and Italian diction classes as a music major, and the fact that everyone else in my family speaks Spanish. I sometimes dream in black and white.

4. The opportunity to hopefully one day play 36 holes of nude miniature golf far outweighs my desire to ever get my Master’s degree.

5. I used to eat Oreos on my way to get my teeth cleaned at the dentist, and I truly believe that karma is the reason why I have to wear Invisalign retainers as a 50-year old.

6. I posed nude for an art class in NYC 4 1/2 years ago, and it was truly one of the most positive and empowering things that I’ve ever done. (And yes, it was on my bucket list. 😎)

7. I’m 10,000% in favor of “responsible legalization,” where you’re not in a position of doing any harm (especially driving) to others. Although I don’t smoke more than once a year, it helps my creativity when writing music and lyrics, and it helped tremendously with my almost debilitating neck pain after my car accident 16 years ago. Sometimes it makes the experience of lying in the complete dark while on the floor of my den listening to Jimi Hendrix’ “Electric Ladyland” album from start to finish that much more chromesthetic.

8. I have a weird obsession of remembering license plates and the names of 80’s sitcom actors. I will never forget my friend Maria’s license plate from her car in college was 4XJ-482 or that Richard Stahl played the snarky chef on the 80’s sitcom It’s A Living. (Roger Shaft, I am forever grateful!)

9. My three favorite aphrodisiacs are the smell of lilacs in early May, the smell of Coppertone on a hot summer day, and the smell of a new car in an automobile dealership showroom. (This is why I sometimes go car shopping even though I don’t need a new car.)

10. I don’t eat Frosted Flakes or Cheerios that much anymore, but when I do, I absolutely have to use chocolate milk.

As much as the thought of seeing the looks on the faces of some of my friends after they read this post is intriguing, at the same time I truly don’t care about what shock or horror they can’t deal with..After spending almost an entire lifetime of trying to meet everyone else’s expectations and worrying about their opinions of me, THIS IS MY LIFE, with all of my flaws, my successes, my mistakes, and my quirkiness. It’s their problem, not my problem.

Quirkiness…..it’s BADASS. 😊