A mother. A daughter. A topic.
I almost bailed on this topic as I was really struggling to come up with any bad habits.
(Cause I’m just such a wonderful person.)
Or…I can’t keep focused long enough to think about any bad stuff about myself.
So I asked Ally.
I left her a voicemail saying that I was having a really hard time and needed her to tell me what bad habits I had. (I figured they’d just roll off her tongue!)
Apparently, my message must have come off as somewhat needy with a high pitched voice, because she texted me back:
“Just got your message…be sure to add whining to the list.”
So I whine. But only when I don’t get what I want…when I want it.
And I guess that’s a bad habit.
I also leave the TV on for the dogs when I’m not home.
I don’t really expect them to watch it, but somehow I feel like the noise of human voices coming out of the box on the wall will provide comfort to them in my absence.
But I know it doesn’t. They could care less. It just makes me feel better about leaving them.
And I know it’s a really bad habit because it totally wastes energy.
But I don’t stop. I left it on for them tonight when I went out for dinner …as I was adding it to my list of bad habits.
And I waste water too.
I take really long showers and I leave the water running in the sink when I brush my teeth.
I know it’s wrong and wasteful, but I just let that water run and run and run (and please note… I am very clean).
And finally…
I use an enormous amount of tissues in any given day.
I wad them up in my pants, stuff them in my shirt cuffs (YES…like an 80 year old woman), shove a dozen or so loose tissues into my purse, and stash tons of them in every coat pocket in my closet.
The actual possession of tissues is not by itself a bad habit…no…it’s the mixture of the used and unused pieces that causes me to sift through them all seeking the most unused one…that I’d say is the bad part of the habit.
But I don’t stop.
I’m a waster. And a mixer.
And now I have a whole new group of pet peeves (about me this time) that I can’t stand.
I should be shot.
My number one bad habit would be procrastination, which is why I’m sitting down to write this at 10:59 PM on Sunday night.
(I WANT TO GO TO BED, DAMN IT…)
Another bad habit? Well, I have a few.
I bite my nails (and cuticles, which is horrible because that’s the stuff that hurts and looks ugly).
I sleep too late in the morning (which means that I’m often late to anything that’s scheduled before noon).
I let the dishes pile up in the sink (even though it drives me crazy every time I do it).
But a bad habit of mine which really drives OTHER people crazy?
I tear things up.
Discarded wrapping paper.
The labels on plastic bottles.
Magazines.
Sticky notes.
Napkins and tissues are the worst, but really any piece of scrap paper lying around will most likely be destroyed once I get my hands on it.
I don’t know what it is, but I can’t stop myself from ripping things up into tiny little pieces and making a mess. Maybe it’s nerves, maybe it’s just something to pass the time, but you can always tell where I’m sitting at the dinner table by the remnants of paper left on my plate.
Most of the time I’m not even aware that I’m doing it, but others notice.
My mom doesn’t let me keep paper napkins at the table once I’m done eating.
Mike complains about the torn up tissues I leave in the pockets of his sweatshirts that I borrow.
Now that I think about it, it’s not limited to just paper products. Really anything that will rip, I’ll destroy.
For example, I’m currently staring at one of those foam stress balls and there’s a chunk taken out of it.
See that? My nervous habit is destroying my stress ball.
Maybe I should see a professional about this…
Hell, I’ll do that later.
