As some of you may know from my announcement a few months back, I recently embarked on a journey of graduate study in classical homeopathy.

When taking a case as a homeopath, it is typical to look for “strange, rare, or peculiar” symptoms that a particular client presents to you. In the interest of practicing how to find the proper remedies to include these symptoms (among all of the others that bring you to the proper remedy for a case), today we went around the class and discussed with one another some of our own “strange, rare, and peculiar” mannerisms and treated them as symptoms for practice.

So I can’t help but reveal some of my own, and try to determine how rare and peculiar they really are. I would love to get all of your feedback on my own “SRP”s and also hear some of yours to see what might be more common than we think, and what is truly strange and unique.

So here goes: Is Meri Normal or Not? (just kidding, I’m not looking for validation that I’m “normal,” here… I kind of relish being odd to be honest…

1. I drink more liquids each day than anyone I know (mostly tea and water with an occasional soda, ginger/apple cider drink, or mint water). If we’re talking 120-150 oz a day. I don’t necessarily feel thirsty all of the time, I just really like the feeling of drinks on my throat. Also, I talk a lot, so I like to keep from getting dry/sore throat.

2. Speaking of drinks, I’m very picky. Drinks have to be very “dry” tasting. On the yes list: water, tea (except fruity), coffee, dry wine, beer, diet soda. On the no list: milk, juice, syrupy tasting sodas, smoothies, milkshakes, fruity cocktails, fruity wines… they all make me feel like I have something congealing in my throat and I can’t swallow.

3. I make up/sing songs about weird everyday tasks like being clean and chopping radishes. Not in a cutesy disney princess kind of way, just in a “my partner is so accepting of me that I forgot its odd” kind of way.

4. I am more productive/ work more easily with distractions going on around me (coworkers talking, a tv show on that I’m not watching, at a coffee shop) than in silence. I know a lot of people say this, but I truly thrive with background noise, and not white noise, to get into a writing or other production cycle.

5. My hair and fingernails grow insanely fast. I wish I could find a way to appreciate this, but with crazy thick hair and a preference for very short fingernails, I have to say I wish it were otherwise. I blame some combination of genetics, vitamins, and hormonal birth control pills. Although my hair has always been this way, and the fingernails more noticeable in the last 5 years or so.

6. I can picture in my mind where almost every item I own currently is in my home, at work, and even some things still in my parents house. My memory works so that if someone needs to know where something is I could describe it up to a couple of inches, probably. I know the contents of my cupboards, where particular craft items are living right now, and where my clean vs. dirty laundry is sitting. One area this does NOT work includes remembering how many “spare” hygiene items such as lotion, soap, toothpaste, etc. we have. Hence the stockpile.

So tell me- are these things weird or just run of the mill? What are facts that you consider strange, rare, peculiar, or unique about yourself?

Meri