A Bit of an Odd Duck

I have to admit to being a little, well, different from most other people. In some ways. Maybe in a lot of ways. When you get right down to it, I'm a bit of an odd duck.

(Some of you may have suspected this. Others of you had been sure of it.)

I enjoy humor, and chuckle at many of life's oddities as they come to my notice. Often, however, I have to explain just why I'm chuckling, and those closest to me tend to just let it go.

I didn't buy my first car until my mid-40's - and then discovered that I'm too distractible to be completely safe as a driver. I'm now back to carlessness, voluntarily.

I went nearly two decades during which I rarely saw a television show. I now own a TV and even digital cable - but don't really watch anything except cooking shows. And movies? As an adult, I've seen on average fewer than one a year, even including TV and videos - WAY fewer.

I've never found my "life's companion". This hasn't entirely been my doing - but somebody observing the infrequency with which I've dated over the years might justly conclude that I haven't tried very hard.

I don't really care for having my birthday celebrated, and especially don't care for having it celebrated at work. The coworker that arranges the monthly birthday party can't understand why I won't tell her which month I was born in. (Interested in astrology? I was born under the sign of Sanders.)

Most of the time, these things - and it's not a complete list - don't bother me much. Occasionally, though, they get in the way. For a short while a month or so ago, they got in my way with such frequency that I felt a bit like a freak.

Of course, we all have our own personality quirks, and the ways that I'm like other people in my culture and in my species are way more important than the ways in which I am not. Further, my unique characteristics are part of what makes me able to contribute in the ways that I do, in whatever part of my life.

Did I mention that I don't really like chocolate ice cream?