There are some things in life that I’m pretty sure I will never be able to give up. I say pretty sure because never is a long time, but I really just mean never.
Now I recognize there are things that one has to do just because that’s the way things are, and I know that as we get older we’re supposed to turn away from the impetuous and self-centered creatures we were as youths; that we’re supposed to make wise, educated, and reasonable decisions that prove we’re intelligent, respectable adults. For example, I have to go to work. I have to carry car insurance if I want to drive. I have to pay my taxes. I’ve given up as much sugar as I can (as Science tells me that sugar is Satan), and I don’t binge-drink, chain-smoke, or stuff myself so full of carbs I feel like I’m going to explode. I want all those things, I don’t like that I can’t do those things, but I know that at the end of the day I’m making myself better by not allowing my hedonism to wander unchecked.
However, no matter how good I get at being a grown-up, or how many decisions I make for the betterment of mind and body when what I really want to do is just have fun, there are instances where I seem to lose track of all sense of responsibility. Thankfully, for the most part, they’re not huge issues. No one has to worry that I’m sneaking out to the corner to get my hands on any illicit substances, I promise. As a matter of fact, they’re so small that I’m going to share some of them with you (even if they do make me feel just a teensy-tiny bit like a child when I read them over).
Be forewarned, this is nothing more than a fun blog post with no great meaning or insight into writing, publishing, or wrestling up a muse. Once in a while it’s fun to just share. And after all this time we’re close like that, right?
Although I have quit smoking, hopefully for good this time, I will still ask someone for a cigarette when I’m drinking out on a balcony/patio/deck.
Most of the time I do more holding than smoking these days, but for me, there’s just something about sitting outside in the fresh air with a drink in my hand that makes me want to—uh, well—stink up the fresh air with cigarette smoke, I guess. (I didn’t say these were reasonable things, merely that I can’t stop doing them.)
- Choose Coke over Diet Coke if soda is the only beverage available.
Yes, I said that I quit sugar due to the aforementioned Satan/sugar connection, and therefore the logical thing to do would be to drink the sugar-free beverage, but I can’t do it. Something in my head will not let me drink that… that… flavour – whatever it is. It doesn’t matter which artificial sweetener it is either; whether it’s sucralose, aspartame, saccharin, or stevia (I don’t care if it’s natural, it still tastes artificial to me!) my tongue makes my brain lose itself anytime I dare to expose them to such a thing.
- Chew my inner lips ragged when I’m stressed out.
Funny enough—funny strange, not funny ha-ha—this is an impulse that drives me crazy when I see other people doing it. It’s also something that my dental hygienist tells me will (I’m sure she meant “could”) cause severe mouth issues. She might have even used the “C” word, but I don’t want to hang her out to dry in a public forum if that’s BS. What she didn’t tell me, however, is how to make myself stop doing it.
Count/tap my fingertips when my hands aren’t doing anything else.
Tap-one, tap-two, tap-three – maybe that’s why typing for hours comes so easy to me?
- Instantly open any edits sent to me by the editor, and then decline, decline, decline!, decline!! almost every single one, leaving a hot-tempered comment for the editor in my wake.
It is always my initial reaction, it lasts about two or three hours, and as such I never re-open that draft even though I do save it. I merely go back to the file the next day—the original file that the publisher sent me—and begin the editing process from scratch. This time reacting like a normal person who has the novel’s best interest in mind.
- Bristle whenever anybody thanks me for my patience.
Is it just me or is that instantly annoying? Annoying as in, even if I was being patient, now I’m suddenly not? Tell me it’s not just me…
Watch “just ten minutes more” of a movie that I’m enjoying even though I’m already a half an hour late for bedtime. Even if it’s a Tuesday. Even if I’ve already thought it three times prior.
In all truth, I wouldn’t get anymore sleep if I didn’t do that, anyway. I’d just end up lying awake in bed wondering what was going to happen next.
- Refuse to repost/retweet a meme if there’s a grammatical or spelling error on it.
I know it’s just a meme. I know people will still get its point. I even know that I make my own errors, and not just occasionally but often. I still can’t allow myself to be associated with it, or have someone think I didn’t notice the mistake when I posted it. So even if it’s hilarious and totally relatable, I have to just scroll on past and leave it behind. 
- Overindulge in caffeine.
In this crowd I don’t think I need to explain this one any further.
- Say that “this time I’m not doing a blog tour,” and then panic-jump into the process of putting together a new blog tour as soon as the release date gets close.
Oh, and by the way, did I mention that my new blog tour starts for “Wolf, in League” starts in October?
Stay tuned for more details!
Now you might be thinking, “All that just to plug an upcoming blog tour/new release?” To which I say: Heck, no! Of course not! (Well, maybe a little bit.) Mostly I just want to share with you. It’s nice to know we’re all a little bit crazy. At least, I’d hate to think that I’m the only one.
So, please, do tell me – do you do any of these? Or do you have some intricacies of your own that you’d be willing to tell us about?
I’d love to hear from you. Drop a comment below and let me know about all your little odds and ends; or at least some of the juiciest few. 😉
Until next time!
AF Henley <3
Henley was born with a full-blown passion for run-on sentences, a zealous indulgence in all words descriptive, and the endearing tendency to overuse punctuation. Since the early years Henley has been an enthusiastic writer, from the first few I-love-my-dog stories to the current leap into erotica.
A self-professed Google genius, Henley lives for the hours spent digging through the Internet for ‘research purposes’ which, more often than not, lead seven thousand miles away from first intentions but bring Henley to new discoveries and ideas that, once seeded, tend to flourish.
Henley newest novel, ‘Wolf, en Garde’ hit the shelves in May, 2016, and the most recent addition to the Wolf pack, ‘Wolf, in League’ is now available for pre-order as well. Save 15% by pre-ordering your copy today!
For more information please stop by for a visit at afhenley.com.
Most of those I do not do.
I do count or tap my fingers rhythmically when I’m thinking or my hands have nothing to do. I tap out a tune, or I count the letters in the words someone is saying at a meeting. Don’t know why, I just do. Actually the letter counting thing started in the 5th grade. I was walking to the bus and out of nowhere I started counting the letters in random words from my thoughts, tapping them out on my thigh as I walked.
Gave up on caffine altogether. Now waking up is hard only if I stay up past 10:30.
Never did properly start smoking, I tried it several times with my friend Josh when I was in the 6th grade. My parents and his parents were smokers and my brother and sister were smoking behind my parents backs. It was only natural i try it out, and found out I can’t understand for the life of me why that is a fun thing to do. So i gave it up. Don’t know if my friend did or not. However, my brother had similar issues giving up smoking. My parents just went cold-turkey.
When I’m nervous I pace. When I’m thinking I pace. When I’m angry I pace. I often annoy people by pacing. I’ve been yelled at several times to “stop pacing, you’re making me nervous”, and warned that I look dangerous when I sulk and pace in my leather jacket (not real leather mind you, I’m not rich) personally I don’t see it.
I immediately hate doing my job when the reason I have to do my job is because people are being stupid. Like forgetting their password, or changing their password incorrectly. Or “We started a building project and found these wires, we weren’t sure what to do with them so we cut them. Oh by the way we also don’t have any internet anymore.” Or my favorite, “I moved everything in my office, now I’m too far away from the internet jack. Can I get a longer Ethernet cord.”
I will procrastinate on these things simply to make them suffer with their stupidity.
When I’m busy on a problem, I will often let other things go. Like cleaning. I always make up for it later, but even the simple act of missing the garbage can (unless it’s something truly messy) will end up staying on the floor for a few hours.
I can quickly forget something that I know I’m supposed to do or be waiting for. For example, on Saturday I turned on the oven waited for it to pre-heat so I could make lunch, and then walked down to the grocery store. Luckily I had not put the food in the oven yet or it would have been seriously burned. But I had no reason to go to the grocery store as I already had food. It just skipped my mind.
If I ever stop doing something, chances are small I’ll get back to it within the next month. I have to really want it to do it sooner.
Finally, I walk around naked all the time. I have no left my door open since moving into my new apartment thankfully. But I still don’t trust these blinds to properly obscure all view. And when people knock on the door it takes me a good thirty seconds to get dressed and answer it.
I am so sorry it took my so long to reply back to your comment. But that was brilliant. I laughed through a lot of it. 😀
My favourite part was the idea of you walking around your apartment naked. You must be hot all the time. Here’s an idea, you should just start answering the door with a towel around your waist. I’ve seen a lot of good porn start out that way. XD
Thanks very much for sharing, Frosty. It was great. <3
Your #2: Diet anything tastes foul… absolutely foul. I truly believe synthetic sweeteners are the physical manifestation of evil on this earth. This opinion is derived from the fact that I have a very picky and weird tongue. I actually can’t stand most water, not even bottled (Evian, Perrier, urgh). I can’t drink my filtered tap water without cutting it with a little bit of apple juice. Have you ever had the pleasure of drinking from a waterfall in the rainforest where few people walk? That water off a waterfall in the hills is the sweetest, most delicious water I’ve ever drank in my life, and I’ve done this on 2 separate occasions, both times at Cameron Highlands. The first was during a pit stop at a touristy place, but since there wasn’t anyone above the waterfall, drinking directly from the waterfall couldn’t have done me too much harm. The second was through an actual hike of a rainforest (also at Cameron Highlands) and I ran out of water in my water bottle. I saw one of those fresh streams that form after a sound rainfall? So I scooped and filled up my water bottle with it (and then the whole class followed my example. You’d think the teachers would warn us about bacteria and worms, but they didn’t…*face palm*). Delicious, and I’ve completely meandered off the current topic’s reservation.
Your #6: “Bristle whenever anybody thanks me for my patience.” Deep breaths, I would always tell myself. Deep breaths, and if I need it, I have chocolate in my purse for coping. XD
Personally, my worst habit is fighting sleep even though I have no (logical, sane, desperate) reason to and my body is screaming at me to get some rest. So, my insomnia is partially natural and partially self-induced. But… when those wheels churn story ideas and details towards world creation, it’s hard to stop. The end result is a constant state of physical and mental exhaustion, just the other day I had to detail about 15 races and their attributes and I think I still have about 10 more to go. I can tell myself I need to give myself a break, but the words fall on deaf ears. Quite a notorious habit that may very well put me in an early grave, who knows? XD
Thank you for sharing! Judging by that list, I’d say you’re quite normal. =)
<3
I can say quite honestly that I have never drank (drunk?) from a fresh waterfall but it sounds like something I would love to try. It also sounds like something that would be amazing to see. Very cool. 😀
As for the sleep, I believe there are quite a few geniuses out there that would have told you that sleep is for the week and their lives/thought processes were made better by a lack of it. Who really knows? The human body is an amazing thing.
Thanks very much for sharing! <3
Can totally understand several of these things.
As I just recently found out I’m pre-diabetic, (and coming from a long line of diabetics who are no longer with us), Satan does indeed live in the sugar. Also in gluten, according to my SO’s very wise & healthy boss who does health/nutritional/natural palliative care–it’s his passion. So I’ve given up sugar, which is tough, as I’m addicted to Coca Cola, chocolate, and sweet coffee. Have actually learned to handle a Coke Zero Vanilla on occasion; because I’m afraid if I have one real Coca Cola, that will be the end of my abstinence. Get organic, low sugar 78% pure chocolate from SO’s store, and have a square on occasion when I’m about to crack under pressure. So obviously, I have not given up caffeine.
Although I had to quit smoking 8 years ago, again for health reasons, I still indulge in a clove cigarette/cigar on occasion. Ease my conscience by reminding myself I don’t inhale them, but still…….not a good thing.
No one has ever thanked me for my patience, because I have none, never did, never will, and that leads to my other bad habit. Gritting my teeth and biting my tongue (literally). Although my husband assures me biting my tongue cannot hurt me, because it is rapier-sharp and made of tungsten steel.
My worst bad habit is my ability to spout profanity creatively and at random. Having no children means that I do not have to censor myself at home. This is a problem when I’m shopping or in any public venue, as I tend to say exactly what is on my mind, exactly the way my brain wants me to–no brain-to-mouth filter. And that’s very bad and somewhat embarrassing, especially if there are young children around. Trying to correct that; it’s a work in progress, but FFS, I don’t know if I’ll ever master the art of self-censorship.
Thanks for being so honest and sharing your bad habits. It’s nice to know others understand and/or deal with some of the same issues.
You are very welcome, thank you so much for sharing back! I was actually chuckling and nodding along to what you were saying about swearing, though. I have a friend who is just like you — she literally does not notice that she’s swearing until the words are already out, and she will say exactly what she’s thinking every time. I love it. Whenever we’re out together, it’s like having someone along that can speak my mind for me. XD
It is a relief to know that we’re all a little mad, and that we’re all (it seems) dealing with the issues quite nicely. 😀
Awesome to hear from you, thank you again! <3
Hmmmm…let’s see…
When I am curious about something, I turn into a four year old and can barely keep my curiosity in check. 😀 I start poking and turn everyone nuts with asking again and again and again.
And again. XD
Another bad habit? Most certainly following laid out bed times. 😉 Another time when I start behaving like a little kid. And dude, do I turn into a Master Procrastinator just to get five more minutes of staying up. 😀
But hey, are our bad habits not what makes us human and who we are? Are they not the little things that make us lovely? 😀
Wait. Is there such a thing as overindulgence in caffeine??? 😉
Life is too short for not enjoying a hedonistic life style every now and then. 😀
Thank you very much for sharing with us, buddy! I had a great and fun time reading! 😀
<3
*side eyes you* What, you procrastinate a bedtime? You of the “it’s 3 a.m. and I have to be up at 9 a.m. and why would that ever mean that I need to go to bed, I’m fine” way of thinking? 😀
Although, to be honest, curiosity will always be something I admire as opposed to something I would consider a bad habit. Better to ask the question and learn than to stay in silence and wonder. I’ve never understood the parents/teachers/supervisors that get annoyed by kids/people who ask questions.
And you are so right, my friend. Life is way too short to not indulge in a few bad habits now and again. Thank you very much for commenting! <3