A Special Brand of Weird

During my time visiting the Larsens for Christmastime, it was rather nice to just get a chance to hang out and talk with Ian and Amanda.  During my time there, I explained something unusual that I occasionally do while watching TV.  While I don't do this all the time, sometimes when an ad comes on, I'll repeat back random phrases directed at the audience, but spin it around so that it's a "Yo' mama" joke.  For example, a car commercial might say that their vehicle has the best mpg in its class and I'll repeat back, "Your mom has the best mpg in her class."  I have absolutely no idea why I do this.

Ian's response was that I'm "a special brand of weird."  He didn't say it maliciously, he was just dumbfounded that I would do something so absurd.  I replied back that, as someone who answers the phone "Ahoy," I was well aware that I was abnormal (for those that aren't aware, I answer my personal phone with the word that was suggested by the telephone's inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, rather than the more universally recognized greeting, "Hello," that is credited to Thomas Alva Edison, though it was a common greeting at the time; when I'm at work, I say "Hello").

This got me thinking about why I do things differently.  The TV ad thing has evolved mostly from me living alone.  I answer the phone differently just because I got bored of "Hello."  I also would consider myself a "facial hair enthusiast", which has gotten more popular in recent years, but it's still the exception rather than the rule.  I do things differently sometimes just to do them differently, not for any attention.

But I also don't care for sports and that has often made conversing with other men my age difficult.  It's not that there aren't other things to talk about, it's that after an exciting game, other men (and some women, too) will often not want to talk about anything else.  I've considered changing this just for the sake of getting along (as some have suggested), but I find professional sports rather dull.  If I personally know who's competing, then I have a stake in the outcome, but otherwise I just don't see why I should care.  And due to the way that football was often more of a focus at OSU than the education (the University built a professional-sized stadium without adequate parking and was in no hurry to remedy that error), I could never muster up enough school spirit to care if our team won or lost.

So, while my "special brand of weird" can sometimes get in the way, it mostly just means that I do certain things differently than others would expect.  I'm surely not the only one who answers their phone with "Ahoy," just as I know that I'm not the only guy who crochets (there's even another one in my ward) or who enjoys baking.  I may be weird, but one thing I am certainly not is boring.