For as long as I can remember, I've had this strange habit when I watch movies or television, and occasionally while listening to a speaker: I count syllables. I usually do it on one hand, and I like to tap out the syllables on my fingers, needing the sentences to end on either my thumb or my pinkie fingers (9 syllables is the ultimate, you see). If it doesn't happen, I'll add or remove a syllable quickly in my head, re-tap it out on my fingers, and then move on to another sentence. I acknowledge it's a VERY peculiar little habit, and I'm not sure why exactly it started in the first place, nor am I always immediately aware that I'm doing it. So then. That's weird.
While driving in the car with Cecilia the other day, she mentioned that she's got this strange habit that I might find funny: She counts letters. She went on to tell me that sometimes when she's listening to someone speak, she'll count out letters of words they're saying and she needs them to be divisible by 9 because, if they're not, she's dissatisfied.
I have
never told her about my own weird thing. I nearly drove off the road.
I don't know what exactly it is that we have in common - some strange freckle on the brain, perhaps - but the similarity was bizarre enough that my jaw dropped. I've said 1,000 times that she is essentially a clone of her father, but this little peccadillo has Melissa written all over it...
