rel[color=black]ationship[/color] Quirks

[MDefarge]

Every couple has their little “thing” that quirk in their relationship that makes them laugh when they think about it, but isn’t usually discussed with friends. 

Here is mine.  I work in the payroll department at my office, and Thursdays are pay check day – it’s my favorite day of the week, and my DBF knows it.  Somehow (and I really don’t remember how it started) this has turned into a whole day of “rituals.”  The morning usually starts w. the BF saying something along the lines of “oh today is your fun day, have a great time.” I go to work, and after I get home from work and he’s home from school we get takeout from “our” place – this Indian restaurant where we had our first date.  We stop by blockbuster first, pick up a couple of movies, pick up our food then head home.  Eat and watch a movie.

Ok, normal so far, here’s the really quirky part – every Thursday night we sleep backwards – with our heads at the foot of the bed, feet at the top. Like I said, I have no idea how this started, but it’s fun to do something different, even (especially?) because it’s just the one night of the week.

So what quirky thing do you and YOUR SO do?

[Clara Bow]

We have two: The Geek Date and Junk Food Night
The geek date is dinner and an evening at Border's Bookstore. Sometimes we go to the movies and the bookstore, but we always do dinner and the bookstore.
Junk Food Night. Whenever we get a weekend night free from parenting (when a benevolent grandparent steps in) we like to get frozen appetizers (I love creamcheese jalapenos and hubby likes pizza rolls) and we play marathon Doom games on the PC while we pig out on snacks. It's the only night I don't cook some real food for supper and we enjoy ourselves immensely.

[IndianInlaw]

When Cop was here, I sat in his lap EVERY night to watch TV.  (Hey! Quit groaning!)

Being an E-Hellion, I'd always ASK first and that drove him nuts. 

Gosh I miss him. 

[Rei-chan]

DH and I started a tradition our first Xmas together that we usually follow every year to some extent:  the Twin Peaks marathon. 

You see, DH LOVES Twin Peaks, and in 2000, when we got together, I had never seen it, but he had talked and talked about it so when I went home for a visit, I stopped in the Suncoast I used to work at and saw a full VHS boxset of both seasons and knew it was the perfect gift.  I am the type of person that cannot wait to give a present, but I held out till a week before Xmas and let him have it early.  We spent the next 7 days laying on an air mattress in our living room watching episode after episode and I ended up loving the show too.  Now, every year, we have a marathon right around the holidays, although we did switch to season 1 DVD (season 2 is only on VHS as far as I can tell) and then watch season 2 on tape.   

The marathon idea got to be so much fun that we also ended up doing that with the Buffy and Angel DVDs when they came out as well, but Twin Peaks is reserved for Xmas alone.

[Lysitheia]

Super geek moment, y'all:

Jeff and I can't afford real dates (we're starving artists, plus I'm a student), so we go and sit in the snack lounge in the library*, drinking sodas from the machine and talking for hours. Sometimes we don't even talk--we get books and read side by side.

* A lot of people close the door and hang, so we aren't a disturbance

[AdakAK]

Every year for Mother's Day we go for our traditional Mother's Day breakfast.  At McDonalds. 

He missed the first two MD after we became parents (Military, no choice), so for the third I drove to see him where he was again assigned temp duty.  It was not far from where we were stationed but middle of nowhere.  There was a Sheri's and a McDs.  We looked at Sheri's and decided NO way we were waiting for a table.  Some people did and they waited hours to sit at a table and hover over new food, they couldn't keep up with the demand. 

We went and sat and had a nice breakfast, our son played and that year they were giving away a little goody bag with things in it.  It's become a tradition, we go to one with a nice playplace and the kids play and we sit and chat.  We couldn't afford much nicer when we were first married, and now I don't want to. 

We've broken tradition twice in 10 years.  Once because the McD took SO long we wouldn't be able to eat and make church and once to take my mom someplace she wanted to go.  Everyone thinks that is terrible of DH, and he's taken crap for it, to take me there but we're happy and that's all that matters!

Susan

[thebadchemist]

Our many quirks can be summarized by a philosophy of practicality over romance.

Our anniversary always fell during finals week. The first year, we were kind of surprised to make it that far, so we figured we had time to do dinner and celebrate. We went the the fanciest restaurant we could afford... Outback Steakhouse. Don't get me wrong, I love that place, but it isn't the most romantic.

Over the next few years, we went because we had to study for finals. After graduation, we just shrugged and kept it going for tradition's sake. Now, we're working and don't have to worry about finals. We thought about doing something fancier, but really, Outback's our thing.

Our friends don't know about it, but my all-male workplace teases me about "letting BF off easy". The man thinks wining-and-dining is pointless and used to buy me flowers from Costco. One Valentine's Day, he and a bunch of roommates/friends all drove to Costco to buy flowers. I showed up at the apartment, where one of the other girlfriends said, "Yeah... your BF rallied the troops for Costco flower-purchasing. I'm both amused and slightly disturbed."

It doesn't sound "romantic", but you can't argue with BF's logic: "Well, flowers die anyway and Costco has pretty good prices." The last two years, he was favoring a local flower shop. He came back with a bouquet of irises and lilies and said, "You won't believe it! I walked into the flower shop and asked the salesperson to put together a bouquet of anything but roses. She asked me what your favorite color was. Lo and behold, I realized I wasn't sure! I said blue. I'm right, right?"

He was right.

We love to give each other appliances and electronics. He's under orders this year from his mother to NOT buy me a kitchen appliance because she thought he should get me something "nice" (I think she was aiming for jewelry or a nice bag or something). NOOOO! I wanted a Cuisinart Griddler... it's a panini grill that has reversible plates (smooth and griddle) and will flatten out to form a open-top grill. Previous gifts have included my beloved stand-mixer and my 7 seasons of Star Trek:TNG. This year, I bought him a shop vacuum. It's the big canister on casters and an attached hose. Hey, it's what he wanted.

He's not romantic, but he's as practical, thoughtful, and generous. As a result, all the occasions we celebrate together are great because he has a knack for the perfect activity or gift (just don't ask him what my favorite color is!). I'll take that over dinners and roses any day.

[Moogle]

We call each other "Monster"   

[LuckyDucky]

we fold out the sofa bed on a Friday night, put on a funny show (we own a few boxsets, so there is a lot of choice), grab some lollies & takeout and sleep there all weekend.  This is usually after RedNut has finished uni for the year and is so mentally exhausted, all he wants to do is sit still for hours on end, eat bad food and go "hur hur hur that's funny".

the brilliance of it is that we can close the sofa bed room off, no one can see the unmade bed and our bedroom stays pretty for 3 days straight.  the down side is that Olliver Bolliver Butt (the big fat ginger tom that owns me & RN) gets a bit put out about sleeping on what he considers to be an inferior bed....so i get the silent treatment for a few days 

[Cupcake Fiend]

We went the the fanciest restaurant we could afford... Outback Steakhouse. Don't get me wrong, I love that place, but it isn't the most romantic.

I think Outback is very romantic!  (Probably has something to do with the fact that when DH proposed to me, we had just bought our house, had no furniture yet, and he had a "picnic" spread out on our living room floor of our favorite Outback take-away.)  After dinner we went to the Melting Pot for dessert (chocolate fondue, sooooooo yummy!!) and then to his mom's house to show off the pretty ring. 

Our quirkiest relationship thing is probably that we used to say "I hate you" instead of "I love you".  I forget how it started, but it's pretty much stopped now because we don't want Thing 1 and Thing 2 to pick that up. 

Some people think it is a quirk that we met playing Dungeons & Dragons and still play regularly.

Of course those are the same people who seem to think it is a quirk that we support each other instead of fighting all the time.  And that we tell each other everything.

[ginlyn32]

Our only "quirk" is the fact that my DH is a HORRIBLE shopper!! He never knows what to get people. He thinks gift cards are not a "real" gift. I say Yeah they are, I spent REAL money on them!!

Ginger

[MerryRaven]

Our only "quirk" is the fact that my DH is a HORRIBLE shopper!! He never knows what to get people. He thinks gift cards are not a "real" gift. I say Yeah they are, I spent REAL money on them!!

Our first Christmas.  We were married less than 3 months.  He bought me a calculator.  Apparently at some time in some store I made a non-commental "That's nice." 

Now I just tell him what to buy.  It has been 28 years so it works for us.

[Bob Ducca]

DH and I have a Wednesday night ritual: we watch "Lost" and eat hot wings.  Must be hot wings and a new episode of "Lost."  We have been a little dazed this year, since they are doing the whole "let's take a break for four months and then show the rest of the new episodes" thing.  What makes this unusual for us is that DH hardly ever has a show on TV that he "must" watch.  He was hooked on "Lost" from the beginning, though, and the fact that I enjoy it too is icing on the cake.

And Christmas gifts- one year he bought me a surround sound system and receiver.  Worst gift ever.  The next year I got a diamond ring.

[mumma to KMC]

To celebrate something big, dh and I go to White Castle. Yep, celebrate with sliders.

...This stems from trying to find some place to eat the night he proposed to me and being the dinky town this is, everything closes at 10 and it was about 1030 once we started looking for food. We drove past the mall area and I jokingly said "We could go to White Castle." He said "Okay." To that I replied, "I have never been to White Castle and I will not be going there the night I got engaged." He convinced me and we went. It was good and I am glad we went because it is something out of the ordinary and a great story to tell.

[Rei-chan]

So, DH and I were talking about this thread and he mentioned a quirk I had not thought of.  We are both big Dark Tower fans (for those not familiar, a Stephen King series) and there is a character named Susannah that at the beginning suffered from a split personality named Detta Walker.  Detta would scream at 2 of the other characters, calling them "Honk mahfahs".  We both found this funny for some reason, and sometimes, for no reason at all, one of us will pop into the room the other is in, scream "HONK MAHFAH" and run out.

Yes, we are REALLY weird.