Monday, October 15, 2007

This strange thing I do...

Here’s something strange and unknown about me:

I do this weird thing. I’m not even sure if I can accurately explain it.

It all started in the 8th grade. I used to be in track. I loved it. I never could run long distances but I was always fast. I was on the relay teams, but my favorite thing was the 100 yard dash hurdles. I won all the time with that race. For some reason it came natural to me.

Running that race has a lot to do with timing…obviously. To practice while in the car I started doing this thing with my head and feet. Now, no one would ever know I was doing this because I looked like I’m being still, but on the inside I was running a race.

In my head my toes would run (they actually moved) and when the car would come up to a crack in the street or a shadow I would jump just like I would jump over a hurdle. But like I said no one would see me jump I would just pick up my toes like I was jumping and I would pretend that I was jumping.

Well, all these years later I still do it! I do it all the time! I don’t necessarily think of them as hurdles any more. I just keep my toes moving around all the cracks, shadows and tar marks on the street. I don’t even think about it anymore. I just do it. I’ll catch myself doing it and then I try to think back to where in the trip I began it.

Here’s something funny. I never thought anyone would ever understand this little thing I do UNTIL…Joey told me one day, “Hey Mom, I do this weird thing with my feet.” I looked at him with intense eyes as he explained this laser game he plays with the edges of the couch. It’s the same game! In our house he plays it with any straight line that’s in the house. He pretends that there’s a laser beam that he has to jump over so he won’t break the line. HOW INTERESTING IS THAT? I mean, of course I didn’t teach him my own game. How could I? He just made up his own strange game like mine.

Every once in awhile we’ll be in the car and he will tell me that he’s playing his laser game. Then I tell him that I’m playing my line game too.

Do any of you know what in the world I’m talking about?

11 comments:

Gail Vinson said...

I am blessed by all the ways you are strange.
When I was a kid riding in the car I would look out the window and imagine I was riding a horse in the pastures beside the road. We would keep up with the car quite effortlessly and jump all the fences and obstacles that came up.
I loved the feeling of freedom it gave me.

Rachel said...

I used to count lines and clinch my jaw every time I walked over one. But, there were 3 points to the line -- the beginning point, the line itself, and the end point. So, every time I stepped over the line, I actually clenched my jaw 3 times.

It was the same going through doorways, etc. I'm not sure when it started, but I've since quit doing it. Occasionally it sneaks back up on me!! ;)

Hey, Dr. Phil did a show once on "Is this normal?" and people were on there with things like these! Maybe we should ask him if we're normal!! ;) (Just kidding!!)

Pamelotta said...

Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo (to the tune of The Twilight Zone)

I clench my jaw and grind my teeth to the beat of the music that's playing when I'm shopping. Maybe that's just the drummer in me! Oh, I also do my fingers on the table, you know how you can click your nails on a table really fast one way and then the other. What's the name for that? Anyway, I start at one end and go through all four fingers and back again to the beat of a song. I try to make it work out so that the song ends on either the first or last finger. If I can't get it to work out, I add my thumb and then it usually works. After it works, I go to another song.

I think I revealed too much. I'm a little embarassed now.

Pamelotta said...

Oh, I almost forgot, this is really weird. When John was little, he would suck his thumb and with his other four fingers, he would stroke the edge of his stuffed animal's fur. Just the very top of the fur. So he would put his thumb in his mouth, bring his animal up close with his other hand and with his four fingers pet the stuffed animal. He lost the stuffed animal and eventually stopped sucking his thumb. Then, fast forward three or so years to April. First, as you well know, she looks just like John which is weird enough by itself. Second, she does the very same thing with her thumb. In fact, she's got a worse case of it. If she walks past a blanket, stuffed animal, even our cat, she will immediately put her thumb in her mouth and bend down to pet whatever it is with her remaining four fingers. That's pretty weird, I think!

God's Warrior Bride said...

When I get really sleepy I start shaking my foot to keep me awake. And when I wake up during the night I automatically start doing it again. I have done this since early childhood. Now I notice not only do I do this, but all of my children and grandchildren do it as well. Do you suppose it's hereditary? Could it possibly be some kind of secret gene that only my family has? Enquiring minds want to know.

Brandi Wilson said...

Thank you all for being so open with your stangeness!

Rachel, would Dr. Phil think I'm normal?

Anonymous said...

ever since i heard that school-yard saying, "step on a crack and break your mother's back," i've tried my best not to ever step on a crack. i guess i just really love my mom.

Lydianna Bradford said...

I'm with cherith about avoiding the "cracks"...I don't do any of the other things y'all do but I know I have habits just as strange...for instance the fact that I have an AWFUL attention span and will "arrange" things in patterns or shred them into equally sized pieces of paper, things like that. I think some of you have noticed my ideosincrecies (I know I totally butchered that spelling) already....

Jennifer said...

I do a thing with my fingernails where I insert them into the corresponding opposite fingernail repeatedly going back and forth between each hand. It seriously calms me down. Also, ever since I was a child, I have liked the feeling of my fingernail touching my eyeball. I used to make my mother put hers in my eye because my nails were too short. It really grosses my sister out. You should ask her about it. Okay, Pam, you don't have to be embarrassed anymore. I am definitely more weird than you now.

Pamelotta said...

Jennifer, you win, hands down!

Wendy, I do the same thing with my foot. Elliott almost always goes to sleep after I do and he's told me that he likes to listen to it and see how long it takes for me to go to sleep. Cause when it stops, I'm out!

Rachel said...

Pam!!! I also clinch my jaw to music!!! I didn't realize how much I do it until I had to go to the dentist and she asked me if I grind my teeth. I told her that I don't, but Aaron and Payton do. She said, "Well, I think you do and you just don't realize it... either that or you clinch your jaw a lot because the tooth is cracked."

I didn't realize how much I do it until she said that!! I noticed driving down the road that I was clinching my jaw alternating sides to the beat of the music!!!

Brandi -- I think Dr. Phil would think we're weird, but I've heard or weirder/not-so-normal things on that show. . . I think we're safe!!