Strange little secrets.

When you're blogging, the best version of yourself is what you tend to present to the world. :) I'm just being honest here...you tend to focus on the good aspects of your personality and avoid the not-so-good parts. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who does this.

So...I thought that it would be kind of fun to, every once in a while, do a post about some lesser-known facts about myself. I wanted to call it something involving "confessions," but that makes it sound bad. :) So maybe I'll take a cue from Katy and call them "secrets." It's little things about myself that are silly and maybe even slightly embarrassing.

I am a seriously quirky, imperfect person, but I'm hoping that some of you guys will relate to these things. :)

So, deep breath. Here we go...

I'm obsessed with odd numbers. I don't know why, I just prefer odd numbers over even. I always want 3 pieces of ice in my water (I have a perfectly logical reason for this- I want the water cold but I don't want the glass full of ice because then a clump of ice rushes at your face when you drink it and you end up with water all over your shirt, *cough* not that I know this from personal experience). There are 5 secrets in this post. When I use the microwave, I punch in odd numbers. Want to warm up a roll? 15 or 17 seconds, please.

I've watched You've Got Mail three times in the past week. Whenever I see a movie for the first time ever and like it, I feel the need to watch it again shortly after that, so I can notice anything I might have missed before. Well, this one I loved so much I watched it an extra time. :)

Swearing is one of my biggest pet peeves. It drives me crazy. I hate to hear people using cuss words (and I hate to read them, too. Good grief, why do modern authors feel it's necessary to use swear words?).

I think, deep down (or not so deep), I have hoarding tendencies. But thankfully I also have some obsessive organizational habits that balance out the hoarding tendencies. I am a collector. It started out with sticker books (I loved me some stickers) and TY beanie babies as a kid. Now I collect books, DVDs, records, Elvis-related stuff, I Love Lucy-related stuff, Eiffel Tower-related stuff, vintage/antique stuff, and anything related to my favorite old movies or actors/actresses.

Plus, as a crafter and someone who has been trained to be a preschool teacher, I feel the inexplicable need to save everything. Because I might need it someday, you know? But...I have to have my room neat and organized, so every once in a while I do a purge of all the stuff that I *probably* won't need someday and throw it away (or donate it to Goodwill).

Last week, I did a major room clean-up (except my closet. Which will probably take a whole day in itself. Because when I was cleaning and came across something that I didn't want sitting around in my room anymore but I didn't want to get rid of, guess where I stuck it?). And I realized that instead of holding clothes, the majority of my drawers hold...movies? Loosely organized by genre, of course.

These are just the VHS tapes. Besides the two drawers of tapes, I also have 10 shelves of books, 1.5 shelves of CDs/records, and seven little shelves or areas where I store DVDs. Things are getting a little out of hand.

I finally broke down and bought Downton Abbey. See what I mean about being a collector of stuff? As if I needed another mini-series, or another DVD period. But besides two inappropriate scenes, this is an incredible show. Ever since I saw it on PBS, I've been thinking about how much I wanted to see it again. And I've seen it several times in Target and almost bought it...and today I caved.

I felt like I needed to tell on myself about this one because at the beginning of the year, I promised that "contentment" was my goal of the year. I was going to cut way back on buying DVDs and books, right? Well...to be honest, that hasn't been going so great so far.

It would probably help if someone blocked Amazon.com on my computer and refused to let me enter Target, Sam's Club, or Goodwill. :)

Until next time,