Idiosyncrasy- a mode of behavior or way of thought peculiar to an individual.

Most of us have them, you know, those weird little aspects of our character for which there is no explanation. Today I'll share mine (I probably have others but this one is, well, peculiar is probably a good word).

I despise stickiness. I hate having sticky hands more than anything. Okay. Maybe not more than anything, but I hate it way more than your average person, most of whom just wipe their hands on a napkin or their pants and call it good. But oh, no, no, my friends. This will not do for me. Because simply wiping your sticky hands on a napkin or whatever does not entirely remove the stickiness from your hands. It's still there, people, and if you touch anything else your hands are going to stick, and that's just unacceptable in my world.

I've been like this for a long time. I remember as a kid playing in the woods and getting sap on my hands, which is worse than anything to a stickyaphobe because you can't get it off by licking it. At least with jam or honey you can lick your fingers, and eventually you won't be sticky anymore. You'll probably collect a few stares in the process but hey, whatever it takes, right? The only thing I remember working was Boraxo soap and I had to scrub the heck out of my hands to get that fricking sap off. I have since discovered that paint thinner, turpentine, even kerosene works great on sap, and if you're in a real bind and in the woods without access to one of theose excellent sap-zappers, you can use dirt. Yep. Just get some dirt and and rub your hands in it. I'd way rather have dirty hands than sticky hands.

Sometimes I wonder why I hate being sticky. Where did it begin or was I just born this way? I imagine myself sitting in my high chair with my sticky hands waving about, wanting them cleaned but not having words. Was I fussy because of it? I'll tell you one thing though, my son never had sticky hands or a sticky face. You think I would touch that? Not likely. His hands and face were immediately washed the moment he finished eating. I wonder if he hated that. Me swooping in with my washcloth before he'd finished his last swallow. Poor kid.

Anyway. I really hate being sticky, to the point where I won't eat anything sticky (like an ice cream cone) unless I have access to water. I have been known to take the ice from my drink to wash my hands.

It's weird, or peculiar, if you like, but I've learned to live with it and discover new ways to achieve victory over sticky. Lotion works (it's the greasy factor), and that anti-germ gel and yep, I carry both around with me, because sticky and I are at war, and I don't see it ending any time soon.

So. What idiosyncrasies do you have? Care to share? or you can just commiserate with mine...