A quirk is described as a peculiarity of behaviour. A friend called the other day and I told him that I had been busy the last few days putting things into order since my husband was returning home after almost three months. He asked me if I didn’t clean regularly that I had to get so tuckered out doing a thorough spring-cleaning once in three months. I had to explain in detail what my cleaning involved.

My husband went to a military school and after that joined the defense forces. Anyone who has been part of the military would know what sticklers those people are for cleanliness. An inspection would involve a hand in a pristine white glove, which would then be run over all the possible nooks and crannies to ensure that they had been cleaned thoroughly. I suppose if it had been only military school, my husband might have escaped his obsession for cleanliness and orderliness. However, seven years of military school, followed by 3 years in the defense academy, kind of tipped him over the edge…as it did all his friends, who had similar backgrounds. So cannot really blame the poor guy. Wonder if I can sue the military, though?

Now what I find strange and might label a quirk, another person may find absolutely normal. I keep my wallet out of sight, since if my husband was to get his hands on it, he would moan as if he was in pain and then start straightening all the notes. They have to be put in, in order of size…all facing the front. Credit cards also have to go in, in some sort of predetermined pattern that I haven’t quite figured out. I am sure there must be some sort of method in all the madness, but I never bother to ask. All bottles in our house, have to have their original caps/lids or they face immediate annihilation. No pen must be without its protective cap, in case it gets sunburn. The clothes in his wardrobe must hang in perfect order…checked shirts must not cohabit with plain shirts. They just might get designs on each other. Underwear must always be folded in a particular way and socks rolled as if they are spooning and kept in their own corners of the drawer. They must not meet…it is forbidden.. An odd sock is immediately banished…he refuses to give it time to see if the delinquent one turns up. Old newspapers have to be kept away, facing only one direction and folded back exactly on the same creases. God forbid, if I should split up the newspaper and tell him to read one part…what the printer put together let no reader, divide.

He loves to cook and every bottle, jar and container in the kitchen has been labeled by him. If I should put one kind of condiment into a jar, which has been labeled with something else, he gets really upset. I have not been able to figure that one out. He knows all the condiments as well as I do, so it isn’t that the wrong ingredient may go into a dish. This is more to do with the military training- if a person has on a Lieutenant’s chevrons, then that is what he is…how can you call him a Lieutenant Colonel? Savvy?

Sometimes I get together with wives whose husbands share the same ailment and we try to top each other’s stories. Like this lady told me that her hubby refuses to use any other toilet paper but the flowered kind…yeah, yeah, he is a huge, burly military guy. After that particular confidence, I am sure he must wonder why I always look at him with a smile. Another hubby never ever when shopping will pick the carton on the top, but has to dig right down below. Seems, the old stuff is always on the top. Yet another guy wanted his sheets changed every time he lay down….now that was creating a whole lot of work for his wife, till one day she got fed up and told him to do it himself. Now he has sort of compromised and resorts to straightening the sheets, fifty times a day. Men aren’t the only ones with quirks. I have a friend who cannot stand seeing things crooked. Even while visiting friends, she is constantly straightening their paintings, cushions and so on.

It isn’t as if I don’t have my share of quirks. I mentally correct punctuation, misspellings, and grammar. I count my footsteps when walking home alone. I read three or four books at a time and quite often read the last chapter, soon after the first. I never like to order my own meals and always ask if someone wants to share their order with me. This drives my husband bats. He hates me picking at his plate. I am sure if he could rewrite this hub, he could tell you a lot more about my quirks.

I think it is only fair that I should conclude by acknowledging that my husband has changed quite a bit from the guy who would almost iron the sheets of newspaper before he put them away…that was 25 years ago, to someone who is a shadow of his former habits. I think living with a daughter who continuously rebelled against such extreme regulation, softened him quite a bit. But, then that is another story and another hub.

So how quirky are you?