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Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

Quirky Quirkiness

May 19, 2014 by HappyGoStuckey 5 Comments

One of my favorite movies has always been Runaway Bride. There is a funny scene between Maggie and Peggy (Julia Roberts & Joan Cusack) which goes like this..

Peggy: No. I’m weird. Weird and mysterious are two different things.    


Maggie: But I’m weird.


Peggy: No. You’re quirky. Quirky and weird are two different things.


Maggie: Peggy, there’s a distinct possibility that I might be profoundly and irreversibly screwed up.

Photo from Google Images
Photo from Google Images

Well, then Julia Roberts does the duck-billed platypus face and all is forgiven. If you don’t know, you haven’t seen the movie and you really should. It’s full of great music, beautiful scenery and some great wedding dresses. And who doesn’t love that? Oh and Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. It’s a feel-good movie for sure.

All that aside, it has recently come to my attention that I, indeed have a few… quirks. I do. You know those things? The things you do but you don’t really know why you do them but you just keep doing them because you’ve always done them?

So I thought it might be fun to compose a little list of 10 things you might not know about me. At first, I shied far away from doing this because it just seems so egocentric, but then I realized that since most of them are a bit embarrassing and self-deprecatory… and it is not really in my best interest to share most of them, it should be ok. HA!

1. Suitcase Problems. I have ’em. I LOVE to pack for trips. I begin to mentally and physically compose “packing lists” weeks before any vacations or fun trips. I’ve done this since middle school. We’re talking detailed packing lists in which I wrote out each outfit, pair of socks and matching scrunchy. I still do this.. minus the socks & scrunchies. BUT. I have a REAL problem unpacking my suitcase. I mean we’re talking seriously crazy. If I don’t unpack in the first 18 hours of a return from a trip.. It doesn’t happen for days.. and days. I don’t know why. I’ve tried to figure it out. I probably should try harder.. for the sake of my marriage. And for the sake of my husband’s toes. He trips over it a lot in the middle of the night.

2. I have several strange and irrational fears. One is the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz. I can’t even explain… how much they freak me out. I cannot watch that movie and I hope I never have to again. Love Dorothy. But unless they re-release that movie without that scene.. and also the Wicked Witch/ Mrs. Gulch. Cannot. handle. it.

3. My toast. I love lightly buttered toast. I love Peanut butter toast. BUT, if I even THINK I will get both butter and peanut butter on my toast, I internally freak out a little bit. So much so that I use different KNIVES if I’m making one piece of each. They can be on the same plate but only if there is buffer space in between. I know. Me = weirdo. I could tell you how this came about but it might throw my Mom under the bus a little bit.. and I love her too much to do that. This time. (Just kidding, Mom!)

4. Paper Towel Cutting Boards. I don’t know why I do this but, when I’m chopping fruits or vegetables or ESPECIALLY garlic or onions, I put a paper towel UNDER the thing I’m cutting even though I have a cutting board. It’s second nature. It’s weird. but I do it. Maybe so I don’t have to keep washing our giant wooden cutting board? Maybe because I have a weird concern about getting garlic juice on whatever else I’m making that shouldn’t be garlicky?? My dear husband has pointed out a few (ok, several) times that I do that… and that it’s a bit.. odd. I mean, what’s the cutting board for if I’m going to put a paper towel down? I don’t know. I just know I can’t stop.

5. I read magazines from back to front. Every single time. I used to read the last chapter of a book immediately when I got it, just to see if there was a “happy” ending. If not, I wouldn’t read the book. I stopped doing that a long time ago but I still read magazines from back to front. It’s not convenient and I always have to find the start of an article when I’m interested in it, but it takes REAL focus to start from the beginning and read through the magazine the normal way.

6. I absolutely always, always check behind the shower curtain when I walk into the bathroom. You know. Just to know there’s no one in there. Even in my own house!!!! Thankfully I don’t do it at other people’s houses.. because HELLO, invasion of privacy. I don’t know maybe I accidentally saw that scene from Psycho as a child.. Do you do this? I’m sure many people do… right?

7. No Fly Little Bird. In College, I tried to purchase a plane ticket and I couldn’t get one because my name was mysteriously on the Homeland Security No Fly List. Isn’t that nuts??? I thought it was a little scary when I looked into “what to do” in that situation– but a few days later, it was all of a sudden gone and I could buy the ticket. It was during the time that a few international spies were being apprehended in America and maybe my name was similar to one of the aliases used– HAHA! Funny.

8. My trip to the “Big House.” Also in College, because apparently that’s when all crazy weird things happen-– I was driving around with a “friend” (whom, admittedly I hadn’t known very long) and we were pulled over. This “person” was immediately cuffed and taken to jail because they had REVOKED drivers’ licenses in THREE states. THREE STATES! I had to drive this person’s car downtown to the SLAMMER to wait on them. Me. I had never even had a speeding ticket, or been to the Principal’s Office for that matter– but there I was.. 10’oclock at night and sitting on the floor of the POKEY waiting on my “Friend” to get “released.” Unfortunately, that little incident didn’t tip me off enough to make haste away from such company… but I lived to tell about it. And that has made all the difference.

9. One -eyed reading. I read before bed, like many people. When I start to get tired and my eyes start to feel heavy, instead of setting the book down and going to sleep– I try to squeeze a few more pages in by closing one eye (to rest it) and reading with my other eye.. and then I switch eyes after a few minutes. Why????? I do not know. I recently discovered that there is really no point in this and if I would go to bed earlier I would not fall asleep while reading, but we do weird things, don’t we?

10. For many years I thought Rosetta Stone was an actual person. Like Mavis Beacon teaches typing.. I thought Rosetta Stone taught foreign languages. Lance discovered this one day and set me straight. THE Rosetta Stone is NOT in fact an actual person. The article THE should have tipped me off. But then there is THE artist formerly known as Prince, so whatever.

I’m sure I could come up with many many more… and I could tell you how I was ACTUALLY late to my own wedding. Not late to the church, mind you.. but slightly LATE coming down the aisle!!! You can even see it on the video.. Looonnng pause in the music, long pause while everybody waits, several seconds of DEAD SILENCE and then BOOM. My dad and I came through the doors. HA! But that’s another story I guess.

I want to hear from YOU! Tell me something funny or strange or odd about yourself in the comments!!! Come on, make me feel better about my quirkiness!!!

Happy Monday!

Friday Rest
Photographic Torture. (In which Lucy keeps getting older.)

Comments

  1. dawn says

    May 19, 2014 at 11:04 am

    Great list! I don’t like to walk over those grates on city sidewalks. I have an irrational fear that I will fall in. I also have an irrational fear of frogs. Back when I ate cheese (and now with the non-dairy kind), mustard and cheese could be on the same sandwich but not next to each other. I also like to look at magazines from back to front (are you left handed?).

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      May 19, 2014 at 11:07 am

      I’m not left handed! That would make more sense, wouldn’t it? Thanks for sharing, Dawn! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Courtney Sexton says

    May 19, 2014 at 12:10 pm

    Well, I completely have the shower curtain phobia myself. And I remember the stories associated with several of your points. Good times! And I share several of them. Except the paper towel cutting board… you’re on your own there 😉

    And I must “fix” every hot cup I get from starbucks, or other establishments with logos/prints on their cup. If there is a “front”- where the main logo is, then my lid should also be appropriately lined with the front, and so must the sleeve.

    It’s a real problem I have that I just can’t break.

    And I can’t believe I just admitted it to someone other than my Love, who incredulously pointed it out to me one day or else I would have been oblivious to this obvious OCD tendency.

    Reply
  3. Ambie Keen says

    May 19, 2014 at 3:23 pm

    I used to check behind the curtain too! Until I realized that I wouldn’t actually know what to do if I found something/one behind it.

    Reply
  4. teresa says

    May 21, 2014 at 12:00 pm

    loved reading this, getting to know your quirks, the little things you do that make you unique. i think its great that you quickly let me see who you are instead of having to wait to find out what makes you…you. you rock!

    Reply

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Hey There!

I'm Cynthia and I'm so glad you're here. I am an introvert with an extrovert's love of gathering people together. I love good books and capturing moments. Whether you visit me here or on my own front porch, I'll be the one holding the Iced Coffee for us both.

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Joy is the courage of people who don’t have all Joy is the courage of people who don’t have all the answers, yet.

While you sit in a season of waiting,
the calendar can often be a cruel companion, reminding you that days go by, weeks, months— with what feels like very little change in the right direction.

Perhaps you can easily assent to: 
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

but you strain to see just how it will be when: “...a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12)

Wherever you and I are today— whether we wander, wait, stand firmly planted, or some pressed together combination of all three — we can take heart.

We are not alone.
And this will not be wasted.
What seems to be an unending blank space, an indefinite pause, is a space for new things.

Long before all is made right, and whether or not it all is tied up neatly with a perfectly crafted bow— we can know this:

We do not have to know the outcome to be faithful today.

✨Joy is not disregard for reality as much as it is obstinacy against despair.✨
Hi 👋🏻 I’m Cynthia and I’m a bit weary. T Hi 👋🏻 I’m Cynthia and I’m a bit weary. There. I said it. These days I’m gravitating to the true & the beautiful as rest for my weary self... and I wonder if you are too.

So much so, that I’m starting a new little offering, it’s called “The Feast: Wonder for the Weary” and the first issue goes out this weekend. It’s a bit more personal (okay this first one is WAY more personal. 🤭) It will be a little bit of everything, all with the goal of offering REST to both the feasters & foragers alike. If you’re already a subscriber— no need to do anything, if not— click through my bio to “keep in touch” and join the feast.✨
We are a people of both lament and praise. We hol We are a people of both lament and praise.

We hold questions without answers— yet we hold them in hands already full of good things.

We hold our daily bread, our daily gifts, and we hold the daily closeness of the God Who Sees.

The God who is no stranger to our lament, and Who Is the reason for our every hope.
He does not grow weary of our asking. Of our need to be told again, He will. 

You friend, are not invisible.
You are seen and cared for by the God who does all things well. (Even when they feel anything but.)
Married love ambition: making the kids roll their Married love ambition: making the kids roll their eyes at our “gushy-ness” as often as possible. 

President & CEO of the Lance Stuckey Fan Club— in every season, but especially on days like today.
Rainy day Mocha date, courtesy of our own toasty k Rainy day Mocha date, courtesy of our own toasty kitchen.😍🌧📚

On this chilly Saturday, we spent entirely too long browsing for books at our library and then all came home to a fire, mochas, and cocoa, respectively. Of all the things we do not know at this very moment, we know the gifts abound, and are worth counting.

PS, if you haven’t spread whipped cream on a foil-lined baking sheet to freeze, and then cut out cute shapes with cookie cutters to top your coffee or hot cocoa, may I suggest you get thee on that at once.
“If God sends us on strong paths, we are provide “If God sends us on strong paths, we are provided strong shoes.” — Corrie Ten Boom

✨File under, things to save in a fire.✨

The prayer journal pictured here contains six months of the hard & the sweet.
Six months of prayers asked & answered for ourselves and for others.
Six months of seeing through prayer, not how it changed our circumstances necessarily but how it changed us.

I always appreciate a record like this— being able to clearly see the paths we are led down, rocky though they may be? Priceless.

The ways God has come near us & drawn us to Himself again and again are written on these pages and I’ll treasure it forever.

Also pictured: Psalms Illuminated Scripture Journal. Highly recommend. Thank you always, @allifarnell
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J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

While scrolling through my photos today, my heart was heavy to realize how far back “before” was.

Before masks and distancing, before loss, before other, more personal bits of hard. Multitudinous change, neither all bad nor all good.

With our free time, we’ve introduced our girls to Tolkien, Bilbo, Frodo, and especially Samwise the Brave. They are officially hooked and we are delighted to watch them discover another world where evil doesn’t win, and the courage of the small matters much. {they close their eyes at the Orcs and we haven’t had a nightmare yet!}🤞🏻😂😬
I’m leaning increasingly more into the analog th I’m leaning increasingly more into the analog these days.

It started with the Sourdough and a dozen different kinds of jam last year.
I suddenly find great calm in activities that stand in direction opposition to hurry, the textbook definition of ✨work in progress.✨ And really, if you could see the other side of this piece, you would believe me. 🙃

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