Idiosyncrasies

“Write down our new number,” my stepmother tells me. “OK, it’s 901-0640.”

“I don’t need to write that down,” I blurt out. “I mean nine minus one is eight, and eight squared is 64. The rest is just zeros! What a great phone number!”

“Here’s your dad,” she says, and hands over the phone. “Definitely your daughter,” I hear her laugh.

So maybe I have a teensy thing with numbers. Before cell phones just stored the numbers of those near and dear to us, my husband called me his pet Rolodex…

…and I will admit I can’t stop the microwave unless the last number is a five or a zero. Doesn’t everyone keep that little rule? Wouldn’t it be disorderly to just rip the door open at, say, 0:27 or 0:14?

Symmetry appeals to me too. When I get eggs out of the carton, I remove them appropriately so there’s a nice little pattern in the box. You know, the end rows emptied at the same time, or diagonal corners filled…

…and cereal boxes wait patiently on the pantry shelf from tallest to shortest.

The dining room chairs need to be pushed in all the way, and isn’t it best for the side of the chairs to line up with the leaves in the table? I mean, that’s just clean looking, right?

So maybe not everyone sees the world this way. But maybe you have your own way of looking at certain things that you’ve realized isn’t universal…do you dare to tell?