20 Feb

6 probably not so Weird Things About Me

Author: Elizabeth

So, I got tagged by Wendy to do the 6 Weird Things About Me meme. I know I did it last year too, but I have so many new readers (hi new readers! love ya!) that some of the weird things will be new to them. The rest of you, just skip ahead to the ones you haven’t read before. Okay? Here we go:

1. What I consider to be the absolutely weirdest thing about me is the Shoe Thing: When I put on my shoes, I HAVE to start with my left shoe first. Have to. If I ask someone to hand me my shoes and they hand me the right one first, I wait until they have handed me the left shoe to get started. Same thing with socks, too. Has to be the left one first.

2. I can not watch or even listen to The Exorcist. When I was in the fifth grade or so, it was on TV, and for some reason my parents thought it would be okay for me to watch it with the family. (The HELL?) I was okay until Linda Blair’s character started talking in the Devil’s Voice, and that was it. I still remember clapping my hands over my ears as I ran up to my bedroom, but I could still hear it in my head. It took me MONTHS to get that movie out of my head. I would lay in bed terrified that I would start levitating and slamming up and down on the mattress. I’ve never watched it since and have no plans to, EVER.

3. I started playing the piano when I was three. I was sixteen months old when I was adopted, and could already sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. By three I could sing pretty much any song I heard on the radio, so my Mom talked to a music teacher at the private school where she taught and arranged for me to start lessons. I played the piano pretty much every day from three until 17, when I chose to quit piano lessons to get a part-time job. When I think of all that money my parents paid for bi-weekly lessons, all the competitions they drove me too, all the money spent on piano tuning and sheet music, it makes me a little ill that I gave that up. I was good at the piano, and I should have taken it more seriously. If I had a piano now, I would start all over with the Beginner’s book and re-teach myself to play. Some day.

4. Because of all the years of piano lessons, oboe and flute lessons, and choir, I have Perfect Pitch. Play me any note on pretty much any instrument, and I can tell you what it is. For that reason, I can not STAND to hear people singing slightly out of tune. It happens all the time on those Kidz Bop CDs. I guess the producers think it’s “cute” or “authentic” to have kids singing not quite in tune, but to me it’s worse than nails on a chalkboard. It’s worse than when the lid of a styrofoam cooler is rubbing against the cooler itself. Aaauuuggghhh!

5. I have an underdeveloped Eustachian tube. In adults, it is supposed to be almost vertical, leading from the middle ear to the pharynx, which is the part of your throat directly behind your tongue. In children, and in me, it is more horizontal, which is why kids get more ear infections than adults. The purpose of the Eustachian tube is to help fluid drain from your middle ear, but in kids (and me) that fluid gets trapped, causing infections. I didn’t know that was why I got so many ear infections until I went to an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist. Turns out, I have the Eustachian tubes of a child. Lucky.

6. Okay! One more to go! Hmmm. What’s the weirdest class I ever took in college? That would be Popular Culture at M.S.U. We studied Big-Time Wrestling as a cultural phenomenon. Seriously. I can’t remember anything else about the class but that.

Want to see a weird photo? We don’t have the best roof drainage in the winter; our attic is badly insulated and our downspouts fill up with ice and then the dripping water has to spill over the sides of the gutters. I took this photo of the shrub next to the downspout:

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  1. Sarah and the Goon Squad » Randomness Part 68 posted on February 27th, 2007

16 Responses to “6 probably not so Weird Things About Me”

  1. Java Junkie (70 comments.) says:

    I have to Elizabeth – I love you but I have to.

    #5.) – probably because you’re the SIZE of a child *giggle* (ducks and runs)

    LOVE YA!

  2. tori (52 comments.) says:

    We have the movie Seven (is that the name of it? the one with Brad Pitt and it’s really scary?) and after we watched it, I hid it behind other movies because even seeing the box freaked me out. I think it “got lost” when we moved because it freaked me out so bad.

  3. ali (9 comments.) says:

    weirdo!

    just kidding…those really aren’t all that weird :) it’s pretty awesome you are so musical…i, on the other hand, took piano lessons for 9 years and have REALLY AWFUL pitch :)

  4. joy (23 comments.) says:

    the perfect pitch thing–very interesting. what’s WEIRD is that you can watch AI each week in that condition! heheheh!

    i am also shit scared of exorcist and pretty much any horror film. seriously.

  5. alison says:

    That picture is so cool. You should submit that to something. Somewhere.

    And that Pop Culture class sounds so fun! I want to teach that! “Research” would be reading People and US magazine and showing slides of Britney’s new “do” (or lack of).

  6. Chantal (40 comments.) says:

    To this day, if we play The Tubular Bells for my Mom, she cries. Now that’s fun at Christmas!

  7. TB (82 comments.) says:

    That picture makes me cold :o )

  8. wendy (13 comments.) says:

    I’m the same way about The Shining. I don’t even like to see it pop up on the tv menu. I played the oboe, and I hated it. Then my daughter played it, and I realized I hated it because it’s sounded like geese were being slaughtered in her bedroom.

  9. Java Junkie (70 comments.) says:

    Oh also, I was scared as hell of The Exorcist (omg especially the digitally remastered version) and still can be if I psych myself up enough for it. I usually calm down within a week – BUT
    The movie Saw combined with the trailers for the remake of Dawn of the Dead (including an un-advertised 10 minute trailer right at the end of Idle Hands that we were watching) scared me SO SO bad that we had to keep lights on *in the living room* at night while we were sleeping because I had to be able to see immediately and clearly if I had to get up to go to the bathroom. This lasted for oh, I don’t know, three months? We had to sleep with the bedroom light on for probably three-four weeks. And I was totally way too afraid to watch any horror movie (which up until then was my favorite genre) for like 2 years. Bad bad stuff.

    In response to your comment – Next to Kaitybug, you’re the shortest person in the house so, yeah :) You’re child-like in size :)

  10. Karl (8 comments.) says:

    Funny, when I was little I was terrified of some animated “Snow Queen” movie. Scared the pajeebas out of me and made me hate the dark for a long time. I was convinced the Snow Queen was gonna get me.

  11. Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah (27 comments.) says:

    You have perfect pitch?

    I am very jealous. I think that is super cool.

  12. Karen (19 comments.) says:

    As one of your *new* readers, I thoroughly enjoyed your six weird things. Looking forward to meeting you someday, and I’ll be sure not to bring my copy of the Exorcist along. (Just kidding. I’ve never seen it. One scene from Psycho when I was about eight years old was enough to keep me away from all future horror flicks.)

  13. Stephanie (11 comments.) says:

    I love that picture. Looks too cold, but really neat.

    And I can’t stand horror movies in general. I just don’t enjoy them.

  14. Kelly (4 comments.) says:

    I’m with you on the bad singing bit. That’s why when I got married many, many, many, many years ago I didn’t have a wedding singer at my wedding. I couldn’t bear to have Great Aunt so and so or my friend of a friend ruin the music for me. Instead I hired a brass quartet from our local philaharmonic. Oh So Much BETTER!

  15. Devra (10 comments.) says:

    The weirdest class I took in college was Astronomy. It was my fault it was weird because when I signed up for the class I confused Astronomy with Astrology. I thought I had signed up for Astrology.

    Needless to say, I was pretty pissed that it required a lab and not merely a deck of Tarot cards.

  16. Cindy (2 comments.) says:

    I am still afraid to watch Exercist even now when I’m growned up! I still think it’s a scary movie but it’s probably bland in today’s standard.

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