Nervous Habits -> sniffing/smelling/rot

[RandomAnthony]

What are your nervous habits, however you choose to define that term?

I ask because lately I'm doing a full sigh thing. I don't even know if it's a sigh, though, now that I think about it. I fill my entire mouth with air and blow it all out. I think I started when we talked about the importance of breathing. But I probably should be careful because I could sound vaguely...rude...were I do it in the middle of a conversation or whatever.

I used to have more nervous habits than I do now. I guess that's a good thing.

[Meen]

I'm a nail biter. And a panic attacker. And a talk too mucher.

[Heidi]

I cuss alot when I'm nervous and upset. :-\ When I'm nervous and excited, I start dancing/moving my feet in some sort of semi-coherent pattern when I'm nervous. I also whistle or sing whatever's stuck in my head unconsciously. And if someone else is making me nervous I typically start rambling on about nothing important and try to make it sound interesting. That last one, I wish I didn't, but I do it when I'm on a date. That's bad, right?

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

I push my glasses back up my nose when I'm nervous. I sigh a lot, too, just because, not because I'm nervous.

[Meen]

I will also talk to myself if I'm on the verge of a freak out.

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

Doesn't everyone talk to themselves? I do!

If I'm at home, I'll find myself going into the kitchen and looking through the cupboards. But I won't find anything I want.

[Meen]

Haha, yes, I talk to myself all the time anyway, but it's specific talking-myself-down talk if I'm too nervous.

Oh wait, is that what you meant? I think I misread your post. Derrr...

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

No, I think you read it right, Mindy. Sometimes, you just have to tell yourself to calm down, everything's going to be alright...

[Meen]

Right now I'm talking myself into going to an AA meeting in Queens. I don't really follow the AA program (which is no more successful than any other method of getting sober, btw, and worse than cold-turkey according to some stats), haven't been to meetings regularly in years, and I definitely don't do the God part, but I just need to find a group of people with whom I can kind of identify so I don't feel so all by myself in this huge place. Except it'll all be people I don't know. Which means FREAK OUT! (Which means talking-myself-down.)

:)

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

Thank goodness your online friends are so portable!

[Sally, la reina]

I touch my face/hair/ears a lot when I'm nervous or working hard on something. I also catch myself picking at the skin on my upper legs, which is gross.

When I get out of the yoga habit I crack my spine and neck and wrists a lot.

[Meen]

Now if only y'all could all come over and help me explore my new 'hood!

[Meen]

OK, I don't know if this is a nervous thing or just a bizarre quirk (w/some sort of ocd basis). I will take tweezers and pluck the hair on my legs. It pleases me (calms me, actually) immensely.

[[deleted user]]

I stroke the goatee. No mean comments Larry!

[Kevin]

i pop/crack my neck often it seems. not sure if i am nervous but i think it has become a tic of sorts.

RA - my oldest son does the big blow out deal. not sure what that is about

weirdest one i have seen: my partner at work constantly makes these odd lip pursing (pucker up) deals and then he smells his fingers right afterward. all the time. very strange and unnerving to me

[RandomAnthony]

Yeah, I don't think the "sighing" thing is necessary a nervous habit. I don't do it when I'm stressed. I just started...out of nowhere...wonder if it's a good thing.

weirdest one i have seen: my partner at work constantly makes these odd lip pursing (pucker up) deals and then he smells his fingers right afterward. all the time. very strange and unnerving to me

Ha...this made me laugh. I wonder why he smells his fingers. Ask him, Kevin!

[Heidi]

Oh Kevin, it's so EARLY... and I'm already laughing out loud. My imagination's had a field day with your weird work partner's nervous habit.

[Sally, la reina]

It IS disturbing. I wish he'd stop that already. Let's pass him a note.

[Meen]

You know all I can think of is little kids going "smell my finger!" Where are his hands immediately prior to his sniffing, Kevin? Ewww!

[[deleted user]]

Next time he smells his fingers just casually walk by his desk and set a bottle of hand disinfectant on it.

[Kevin]

it is all the time. a tic or odd habit really. especially when he is driving. a nice guy but that is disturbing. the initial lip deal is like he is drinking from an imaginary straw and then he goes to the nose with the fingers. i am sure he doesn't realize he is doing it. he does that then i start with the side to side neck popping and we look like a bad mime team

[[deleted user]]

Maybe you should tape it and set it to music.

[Meen]

I never understand how people can not be aware of the physical movements they are making, especially in public. But then again, I am hyper aware in public, so of course I don't get it.

[[deleted user]]

It's easy Mindy, mind is occupied with one thing while the body does another.

[Meen]

Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. My mind would be occupied with what my body is doing b/c my mind would be obsessing about what other people were thinking about what my body was doing.

[Kevin]

good idea jim. my neck popping deal sort of looks like an 80's break dancing move i think

mindy - my younger bro is hyper aware in public too and has a very odd fear that their is lint or something on his back and has all of us check it for him. i always act like i am picking something off which skeeves him

[[deleted user]]

Mindy wrote: "Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. My mind would be occupied with what my body is doing b/c my mind would be obsessing about what other people were thinking about what my body was doing."

Gotcha, I don't obsess that way - I obsess over things not around me that I can't do anything about right then.

[[deleted user]]

Kevin "El Liso Grande" wrote: "good idea jim. my neck popping deal sort of looks like an 80's break dancing move i think

mindy - my younger bro is hyper aware in public too and has a very odd fear that their is lint or somethin..."

I do that Sammy Sosa kind of neck thing myself Kevin, but to me its just to loosen the neck up, it has nothing to do with nerves.

[Meen]

I obsess over those too, Jim! (All of which explains my extensive time in therapy.)

Kevin, the lint-picking is hilarious. I wouldn't be worrying about that while I was out, but if I came home and noticed that something had been on me--or worse, in my NOSE or something like that--I would spend a lot of time freaking out over what everyone who saw it thought about it.

[RandomAnthony]

BunWat wrote: I think its bad form to smell your fingers in public really.

This is my favorite TC quote in recent memory. I totally agree with the sentiment, by the way.

[Kevin]

you ever notice that some people are just smellers anyway? some in my immediate family are. they smell everything especially food. just a whiff. but new stuff they buy and other junk. they smell desserts for crying out loud.

"it's a flippin' brownie! i KNOW it smells good"

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

I smell store-bought desserts to decide if they're worth eating, Kevin. If they smell like nothing but shortening and corn syrup, I pass.

[Kevin]

smeller

[Kevin]

here's an odd request:

[while holding deli turkey:] "hey, smell this and see if you think it's gone bad"


yeah right! you kiddin' me? if i even think it's bad i toss it. no sniffing, no snorting, no lil whiff. i totally trust your judgment on this one

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

Yeah, my husband does that to me. He pulls stuff out of the refrigerator, declares it to be bad, and then asks if I want it.

Uh, noooooo, thanks?

[Meen]

Milk can sometimes fool ya. It'll have a possibly gone over smell, but it's so faint that I taste it anyway and it tastes fine.

[Sally, la reina]

I can smell it through the closed refrigerator door if there is something rotten. I do f***ing not need to lift it to my face and inhale deeply to detect rot.

[Sally, la reina]

I have a total vegan organic friend who makes her own butter out of heavy cream. She is the only one who can explain milk to me in a way that makes sense as to why I don't like it.

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

Wait, vegan + cream? Isn't that a big no-no?

[Kevin]

i have a total vegan friend who always chastises me for drinking milk (while she is sweatin' her arse off cleaning the juicer after squeezing 27 carrots and 16 apples to get 3/4 of a glass of juice)as she says "it will make you have more wax in your ears." i ALWAYS reply with the same thing:


"huh?"

[Heidi]

Most definitely -> vegetarian+cream=okay

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

But VEGANS don't eat ANY animal products. No milk, cheese, cream, eggs, yogurt... NADA. It's just plants for vegans.
Which rules out heavy cream.

[Sally, la reina]

Ok, you all are very, very right. I was exaggerating.

She's into organic, non-processed, no kill/harm foods.

*punches wall*

[[deleted user]]

Do you have any walls without holes in them Sally?

You may want to invest in a punching bag.

[Sally, la reina]

Her explanation escapes me, honestly. It has to do with the churning/skimming process that results in lower fat milks. The fat is somehow nature's preservative, like how butter lasts 2x as long as cream, which lasts longer than 1% milk, etc.

This does explain why I abhor skim milk the most fiercely of all milk.

[Heidi]

Sally wrote: "Ok, you all are very, very right. I was exaggerating.

She's into organic, non-processed, no kill/harm foods.

*punches wall*"

Yeah, but does SHE call herself a "vegan"? Because if she does, you can blame her, Sally! :)

[Kevin]

i call myself a Carnivore

[Sally, la reina]

No she doesn't. I'm just a dork when my fingers go faster than my synapses.

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

I'm a bibliovore, myself.

[Heidi]

Sally wrote: "No she doesn't. I'm just a dork when my fingers go faster than my synapses."


Psst... I gave you an out, Sally! You're supposed to play along. It's not like it's mean because none of us know you your vegan vegetarian friend really is.