Elie, Elie, Quite Contrary

Between work craziness, home craziness, and a touch of bloggers-block, I haven't exactly had a high-output week here. I do have at least three serious posts in various degrees of contemplation, creation, or completion, included the much-delayed epilogue chapter of "Aaron's Story". For right now though, I'm feeling overwhelmed with contrary customers, contrary co-workers, contrary kids, and contrary life in general. So I've been thinking about the ways that I'm contrary.

Though I strive to be honest and fair to a fault, I do have a stubborn, non-conformist streak and a lot of little contrary personality traits and quirks. For example:

• When I'm in a shul or with a group of people who are predominately more "yeshivish" than I am, I love being dressed and generally behaving as "un-frum" as possible. OTOH when I'm with a non-Orthodox group I tend to act more yeshivish than I really am.
• I don't enjoy getting new clothes, even as a gift. When I have them - my theory is that pixies put them in my closet when I'm not looking - they just collect dust while I keep wearing my shoddy old clothes until they are totally disreputable. But once I start wearing the new clothes - usually when the old ones get thrown out by the same pixies who apparently bought me the new ones - I enjoy them.
• I am a confirmed carnivore; most of my favorite foods started out as cow. But for Shabbos night it has to be roast chicken. Even when we have a beef main course in addition, I need my chicken Friday night.
• The most popular / well-known songs by a given rock artist are almost invariably my least favorite of their songs. E.g., I like almost all Springsteen, but "Hungry Heart" and "Born in the USA" are my least favorite songs of his.
  
• When I'm tired I walk faster, not slower. I want to get the walk over with.
• I have gone to many "chick flicks" and no matter how sad the ending is, it rarely makes me cry. OTOH I tear up like anything at the end of total guy movies like "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "One Crazy Summer", no matter how many times I've seen them.
• I tend to get interested in a trend/fad, if at all, only after it's no longer widely popular. E.g., most of my favorite TV shows were watched almost exclusively in syndication.
• I love eating "juice oranges". I don't care that they have seeds and are hard to peel. They just taste better than seedless.
• In general, whenever someone is strongly promoting a cause or grinding an axe, especially when they're being less than courteous about it, I feel pushed towards the opposite side, even if I would otherwise agree with the axe-grinder. But there's a good reason for this. I once believed in causes too. I had my pointless point of view. And life went on no matter who was wrong or right. [OK, who can ID this quote?]

I've shared mine - how about yours?