IDIOSYNCRASIES, CONT’D

Some of you may have thought I was pretty hard on the genius yesterday, but just to set the record straight, he actually helped me make a list of his unusual ways. And yesterday when I read him the blog, he laughed out loud in several places.

Today I want to talk about two of his compulsions. The first is his strong desire to be organized. Every morning after rising and getting dressed for the day, he gets his coffee and sits at his desk. Without fail he does two things: he makes calls to the bank to check out his accounts, and he makes out his to-do list for the day.

This list is extremely important to him and he sticks it inside his pocket calendar and carries it everywhere he goes. And I do mean everywhere!! Even when he goes into the post office to pick up the mail and I am in the car waiting, he puts it in his pocket. Maybe he thinks I will steal it while he is gone (as if I wanted it!). I have actually been tempted to hide it sometimes, but I’m afraid he will have a heart attack, so I resist the temptation.

Every day when he makes up the list, he carries some items over from the day(s) before which didn’t get accomplished. Many times I have asked him to do something for me around the house, and he informs me that it is on the list. It may remain on the list for days, weeks, or even months, but “It’s on the list!”

Because he is so goal oriented, he takes great pleasure in marking off each “done” item at night before he goes to bed.

And speaking of bed, of course he has his own pillow if it can be called that. The genius likes a very thin affair, and he has had three throughout our marriage. The first one that he brought to the marriage was one of the ugliest flowered throw pillows I’ve ever seen. But he put a pillow case on it and used it every night. Sadly, we left it in a motel once and he had to get used to another one.

That one lasted over twenty years when he again left it at some hotel. The one he has now is actually a worn out bed pillow that is so flat, I wouldn’t even feel it under my head. But he loves that little bit of shabby fluff covered by a pillow case and he’s happy with it.

And --- he will carry it on a trip that we are soon to be taking, so let’s hope he doesn’t leave it. Maybe an outlandishly colored pillow case will help!!