Scratch and Dent Dreams

Everyone should hear this. Eric Darby is a slam poet and this is one of his performances at the 2005 semi finals. It is pure genius, and very true.



Cheers,
Price

Quirks

One of my wife's friends "tagged" her today and challenged her to think up 6 quirks and then post them on our family blog for all our friends and family to read. Sarah, my wife, challenged me to accomplish the same task and I took up the challenge gleefully. I have seen variations of this game played where a person must think up 100 different quirks and I began to wonder how many I could actually come up with on my own.

Here are the first 7 quirks that I could think of; I will try to post more in the coming days.

The challenge has been extended and graciously accepted. Though I must admit that limiting myself to just 6 quirks is going to be somewhat difficult. I may need more space, and I must admit that I am more than a little intrigued to see if I could in fact complete a list of 100 silly quirks. So, that said, let’s see how far we can actually go.

1. First and foremost, I was going to place this at the end of this discussion out of a sense of irony, but Sarah says that I need to place it at the beginning as a warning to anyone who may not have a lot of time to spend reading this post. I cannot say anything in a simple or direct manner. All issues must be dealt with in as much detail and depth as possible so that I can feel as if my ideas are fully understood and there can be no confusion as to my position on a given subject.

2. I do not like being touched by strangers or people that I do not know very well. This is a quirk that I have had to deal with for the majority of my life, and if I know you well then it is not a problem, but by and large I do not like it when strange people approach me and wrap their arm around my shoulders or provide the free-of-charge, unsolicited, and unwanted shoulder rub.

3. Continuing in this theme, more than anything else, I DO NOT like it when people touch my feet, or attempt to touch me with their feet. There are two people in this world that I can allow to touch my feet—my mother and Sarah. This is a difficult thing for me because more than anything else I love being barefooted or wearing flip-flops (Reefs are the greatest flip-flop ever). Summers are especially difficult for me because of this quirk.

4. I am very sensitive to crumbs. I cannot stand anything on my fingertips. All salty foods or crumbly foods must be eaten with a napkin close by so that I can immediately wipe my fingers off after each bite. If no napkins are accessible I will continually wipe my fingers together (a motion similar to the one made when asking a friend for cash in homemade sign language) until I feel I have adequately brushed the miniscule food particles from my fingers.

5. I have to eat pop corn with a pair of chopsticks because I cannot stand the feel of salt, butter, and corn crumbs on my fingers. If you have not tried this trick I recommend it, not only does it make the pop corn last longer, It is quite fun.

6. I have an unnatural affinity for pens. I am very picky about the types of pens that I use when writing; they must meet a very stringent set of criterion based on pen weight, smoothness of writing, quickness of drying, and minimum transfer (the act of writing, smearing ink on the side of your hand, and then inadvertently transferring that smear to another sheet of paper, effectively making your hand a living stamp). This is a serious concern because I am left-handed.

7. I cannot mix my foods. Every item on a plate of food must be eaten separately. While this rule is not entirely applied holistically (I can mix things like steak and potato’s) It absolutely applies to any fruit that might be served with a meal (applesauce must have its own bowl that way the juices from the fruit do not mix with the other foods thus contaminating the salty nature of meat by adding a fruity sweetness).