It seems that I've been tagged by fellow blogger, the wonderfully alluring Hedonistic Pleasure Seeker, and have been prompted to reveal 6 peculiar (read: quirky) things about myself. As if what has been written here already, for the past 2 years, doesn't paint a strange enough picture... Here I go...

• I am an introverted extrovert, if that makes any sense. I enjoy being around and meeting new people, and am not a misanthrope, as many people may think... I just also enjoy moments spent alone... immensely. I cherish my alone time, in fact, and feel that being solitary is crucial to my sanity. While I need to be around people, my need to be away from them, is just as important.

• I use to be fascinated and enthralled by vampires when I was younger. No, I never had any desire to be one, but the history that Dracula was born out of, intrigues or intrigued me, as does the eroticism that comes from a good vampire tale, and the sudden strength and agility that follows after a character falls prey to vampirism.

• Certain ones of people's, um, idiosyncracies annoy the hell out of me and I have to work hard not to fly into a blind rage. For instance; people who don't wash their hands before they eat, or who handle food sans washing their hands, people who blow their nose in areas where there is food, people who smack whilst masticating their food, people who put *shivers with anger* ice cubes in their red wine and behaviors of the like. I am quite neurotic and particular about things. So I usually suffer these violations in silence, resisting the urge to bolt from the room.

• I don't like to sit back hence, I hate sunken in chairs. I always need to be sitting upright at all times, in case I need to get up abruptly for whatever reason. When I was younger, my mother used to push my shoulder back, trying in vain, to make me sit back, because she thought it odd, that I sat upright, or on the edge of my chair, and I would resist... she finally gave up. On the Greyhound, I painstakingly adjust my chair, so that it is in an upright position, and not leaning back. I feel very comfortable this way.

• I am a bit of a germaphobe, and don't really like to shake people's hand, but I do it, because it's part of our culture here in this country. It takes all of my might, not to bolt to the nearest bathroom and wash my hands for the length of Happy Birthday, right then and there. I'm polite, and I wait until the person departs, before walking to the restroom at a clip. I also refuse, at all costs, to eat the freebie Happy Hour buffets they have at bars, no matter how hungry I am. I'd rather order and pay for my dinner or an appetizer. It's one thing to sit at the bar of a restaurant and eat my meal, or to eat newly supplied bar snacks or bread sticks, while having a glass of wine... but I will not touch the communal buffet or any other free Happy Hour offering, knowing that people have come straight from work, or used the bathroom (men especially) sans washing their hands, because you and I both know they didn't.

• I'm obssessed with hygiene and have a fear of smelling bad, or having bad breath, so I'm never without mints, or gum, and I always um, make sure I freshen up "down there" before the day is over. People always compliment me for smelling good, and I feel a great sense of pride about that. No I don't bathe in perfumes and oils... but I do make sure I'm so fresh, and so clean and that my scent reflects that.

These are just six of the things that make up my quirkiness. I know most people find me a bit, um, strange, but I think there is beauty in healthy eccentricities. At least I'm not sucking off of a crack-pipe, or slinging dope.