I'm weird, You should be too

Weirdo. Freak. Misfit. Oddity.

All these words have been used to describe me at some point in my life. I don't know that it's something to be proud of, and I certainly know that when I was younger it wasn't something that made puberty any easier. I was always the kid with the big ears that sat in the back of the room. I had braces for a long, long time, and eventually just said F it and took them off because I got sick of having them.  I figured my teeth are straight enough.

In high school I was a weird one. I was on the both the football and lacrosse team and was also in all AP classes.  Additionally, I also found myself auditioning for the high school play. In fact, in our middle school rendition of A Mid Summer Night's Dream,  I was actually Oberon. Yes, that's Oberon, King of the Fairies!!

Ill met by moon light proud Titania!!!

But I digress.  I opened my kimono a little bit to let you know that I'm weird, I've always been a little odd.  I can't decide if I kept it hidden from the Mrs., or if that's why she liked me.  [There is nothing hidden about him being weird, I've known this from day 1~ Mrs.Wow]. 

Enough reminiscing about being a teenager, I'm weird still now!  Here's a few examples:

1. I'm right handed.  But that's not weird.  It actually makes me one of the vast majority.  But, if you ever want to see someone flip their shit, watch my wife try to use my computer.  Why?  I use my mouse with my left hand.  [And not only is his mouse on the left side, his mouse buttons are backwards too.  It is the most cockamamie thing I have ever seen~ Mrs.Wow]. I also brush my teeth with my left hand.  I try to do all sorts of weird menial things with my left hand.  I tend to think it's from some misguided belief that by making myself do things with my left hand, I'm training my brain to think differently and hence keeping it from atrophying away to nothing.  [Maybe you should work on not getting hit by cars, that would also help in preserving some brain cells!~ Mrs.Wow].  All I know is that you should watch my co-workers and my wife try to use my computer.  It's hilarious.  Actually, maybe that's why I do it, spite.
   
   Yup, see my left-handed mouse. It'll getcha!
   
    


2. I value living my life more than I value buying the next gadget.  My phone is shattered, my car has 180K miles on it, my jeans have holes in them.  Even the phone I have, I won in a raffle (Thanks FinCon and Republic Wireless).


3.  I also basically wear the same thing almost every day. Now, that's not that weird in and of itself, but you know what is weird?  The only jeans I wear are Levi's 513's, so I bought 4 pairs.  The only sneakers I wear are Nike Air Max Janoski's.  I found a pair of shoes that I like, so I bought 4 pairs (see the pic up top).  [Mr. Wow forgot to mention that he is color-blind, so he thought he was buying grey shoes, when in fact they were teal.~ Mrs.Wow].  And more often than not, my t-shirt is some sort of either a brewery shirt, or a shirt I picked up from traveling.  If it's cold, I'll have a zip up hoodie over the T-shirt.  So, yeah... if you want to find me, that should do it.


4. I take cold showers and I love it, although  It takes a little getting used to.  If you just go cold turkey (HA!), it's a good shock to your system.  I'd recommend turning the temperature down little by little.  In fact, it took me about a month to tell anyone at my new office that the hot water wasn't working.  I feel like it cuts a toughness groove in your brain.  Now, stop imagining me in the shower!!


5. Credit card debt is something that so many people in this country have and it's really a shame.  We were talking at work about getting new credit cards for rewards.  Yes, my ears perk up when ever someone talks rewards points, or 401k's or what not.  But, everyone was talking about how they needed one that they could transfer a balance to.  I even heard someone talk about how they had over $60K in credit card debt!  I audibly scoffed and couldn't contain myself as I exclaimed, "What are you nuts?!?!" So, apparently not running up massive amounts of consumer debt makes us weird as well.


6. I sing and dance in the grocery store.  Just today we were in the market, and I pushing the cart while the Mrs. is off grabbing something else from another aisle.  She comes back and there's me... Bopping around to the music in the grocery store, while I try to find the cheapest per sqft pack of toilet paper.


7. Riding my bike to work is something I've discussed many a time on this site.  But, after almost 9 months at my current employer, I still get questions about biking.  Just last week, someone asked me "If you have a motorcycle and can get to work in 20 minutes, why do you bike and take an hour?"  I just responded, "What fun is that?  I like the exercise".  Or, when it's raining, and they ask how I'm gonna get home.  I just reply, "My bike, that's how I got here.  Besides if humans are anything, they're waterproof!"  They all just shake their heads and go on about their business.


8. I pack my lunch almost every day.  People have even commented at my office.  "How do you pack lunch every day?"  I just replied, "I cook every night and just make more than we eat so we have lunch.  Then we can pick what we want every day for lunch."  We even discussed how we need to order Chinese food again so we can get more tupperware to pack our lunches in.  I think I blew their minds.
   
   See, just open the fridge and find lunch!
   
    


9. We watch Maury Povich and the Bachelor, and love every minute of it.


10. We listen to crappy rap music.


11. I'm a grown man that drinks milk every night with dinner. More times than not it's chocolate milk.

I could go on and on and on.  I think you get the point.  I'm weird.

But being weird is a good thing.  I think, at least to some extent.  There are a lot of benefits to blazing your own path.

You find new ways to get places.  You look at things from new angles.  You see the world through a different lens.

It's what really allows us to make so much progress down this path to FI.  We're breaking the mold, we're questioning the tried and true way of doing things.

Really, we're all weird when you pull back the covers a little bit.  Embrace it!  What fun would life be if we were all the same?  And always, always remember: Freaks come out at night!

What about you?  Any quirks?