Weird is better.

Have you ever heard the analogy that people are like houses? A house is affected by its location, the people that encounter it, the things it sees, the catastrophes that it endures and by how long it sticks around. A house starts out like a blank slate, and it slowly builds it's character. 

Just like people. 

When I first graduated from college... I lived by myself In an apartment above an alterations shop, I picked it because Mary and I saw the " for rent" sight in the window one night when we went to get shamrock shakes. It was this big old building that was painted a spring-green color. It used to be a used book store named "The Book Tree" and the advertisement was painted old-fashioned style on the bricks on the side of the building.

The store below was  run by a cute Italian woman named Floriana. She moved here from Italy in the late 1940's with her husband. I talked to her once about how she fell in love, and what it was like to be a war bride at 17. She was amazing. I could hear the sound of her sewing machine all day long as it rhythmically bumped against the wall that we shared. She was also very charming. I could hear her loud, infectious laughter as she teased and enchanted her customers. 

My landlord was this man named Chris who had a permed mullet and taught Guitar lessons next door. Sometimes at 9:00 am on a Saturday I would hear a teenage novice practicing "Ring of fire", or "Smoke on The Water". Chris was an extremely polite guy who liked to tell me corny dad jokes or puns when I went down to get my mail. 

He only charged me 450, including rent and all utilities. Before I moved in, he repainted everything  and let me pick out the colors (I had a turquoise kitchen, ovbi..). He replaced all of the floors, and he even brought his old washing machine and dryer for me to use. 

The apartment had many interesting qualities.  

For example: 

1. Every floor was crooked in a different direction, so I slept on a tilt, and burning candles was frustrating and sometimes scary, because the wax would burn uneven and drip down the side. I no longer buy pillar candles.

   

2. My bathroom door was literally right next to my kitchen counter.. and when you opened it ... BAM. there was the shower curtain. The curtain was on a hinge so that it could be folded flat against the wall for easy entrance to the bathroom.  You actually had to step over the bathtub and turn around in a circle to find the toilet. 

3. The kitchen floor was out of focus. I don't know how to describe it besides the fact that when you looked at it you felt a little dizzy, and also like you forgot to put in your contacts. People would come over and you would watch their faces right before they felt like they should ask. 

               Guest: " Is your floor..."

               Me: "Yep. It's blurry" 

               Guest: " Wow. Um, why....."

               Me: " No idea.... but isn't it great?"

               Guest:  "Um. yes? I don't think I can look at it any more."

4. There was a creepy back porch with two flights of stairs and a motion sensor light that was so bright that it made you feel like you were caught during a prison break when you came home at night. Chris installed it for my safety. 

5. As a dad of a teenage girl, Chris was always worried about my safety. He controlled the heat, so in winter he bumped it up into the high 70's, because he was worried about me freezing to death. I wore shorts.  

6. It was above a river with a dam, so you could hear the rushing water. Right next to the river were train tracks that were very.... um... active? So sometimes, at 3:00 am, in addition to sleeping on a tilt, I was also shaking with the rest of my apartment. It felt like I was experiencing something that could be measured on the lower end of the Richter scale. The tremors were accompanied with the sound of the freight train, which apparently is the same sound of a tornado. I've never been around in a tornado but I could see how the sound could be frightening.

7. I loved how I was slightly concerned about a gas explosion because my stove top seemed to be perpetually warm, even when it was turned off. 

It made me feel dangerous. 

8.  It was above the main street. I watched the Halloween parade from my window. One morning I woke up to two old men fighting over the various merits of a particular red mustang. One evening around the beginning of December, I almost died of a heart attack because there was a man on a crane/cherry picker staring at me through my living room window. The municipality was hanging banners on the light posts that said "Happy Holidays!" 

9. My windows were lit up at night with a neon sign that read "Tightwad Tobacco." 

10. I loved how I couldn't afford cable or internet, so I read all the time, and borrowed movies from the library. thus outlawing me from the Beaver County Library system, because I'm pretty sure that I still owe them 10 dollars in late fees.

11. My computer also broke right after I moved in. so even if I could afford the internet, I wouldn't have been able to use it. I had a ton of free time.  I worked on paintings and listened to music. 

I filled the rooms with my paintings and books and pictures from Italy. Every apartment that I have lived in (3 now) looks like my personality exploded all over the walls, but this one was my first.

The  turquoise kitchen with the blurry floor. 

My living room.

I really couldn't help but fall in love. 

I fell in love with the apartment the way I fall in love with people:
I appreciated  the many quirks, flaws, and idiosyncrasies....the strangeness that was weaved into the walls of the place before I arrived.  

Whether you are referring to apartments or people, I believe there is great merit in weirdness. 

Weird is just more fun.

I found a quote a while ago on the internet that I love. 

“There are people who are generic. They make generic responses and they expect generic answers. They live inside a box and they think people who don't fit into their box are weird. But I'll tell you what, generic people are the weird people. They are like genetically-manipulated plants growing inside a laboratory, like indistinguishable faces, like droids. Like ignorance.” -Joy Bell C. 

Weird is bravery.

Let me provide you with some real- life examples, like... my family. 

My mother has a very important job in the healthcare field. She solves important hospital problems and gives lectures to large rooms of people. She teaches college students, she saves lives, and she makes big decisions. She is constantly reading boring sounding articles and highlighting things that she printed from several databases. She is formidable. Sometimes people are afraid of her. 

BUT.. She is also has the highest score in the nation on  Bejeweled. She spent half the summer trying to beat this guy named "Matt" on the game called butterflies. Sometime in July she beat him. I was sleeping at my parents house because I was going to church or something when she woke me up out a dead sleep to tell me of her victory. I replied that  we are  obviously a family of winners. I asked her if she would like a certificate... but I think the thrill of the win was enough. She also felt the need to beat all of our educational computer games when we were little... like Spelling Jungle and Carmen Sandiego.

Mom also hates grapes. She hates grapes because sometimes, eventually, a small percentage of grapes become raisins... and she really hates raisins. Grapes are guilty by association.   

My little sister Alex was a strange little kid. She used to walk around town with no shoes on. She introduced herself to strangers and made up her own songs.When she was 10, we volunteered at the Wash. County Fair with our church. Alex earned 50+ dollars in tips that week.

The church booth didn't take tips.

People just randomly gave her money because they thought she was funny. The truly amazing thing is that she only got paid a few quarters at a time.  She accumulated 50 dollars in 6 days by just giving people forks and ranch dressing packets.

She used to pretend that she was in a music video and dance around and sing to herself in public places while everyone else around her was holding a normal conversation.(She still kinda does)

Alex hates TV. While everyone in our house was watching TV She used to hang out in her room doing God knows what. She discovered only a year ago that there was a show on TV called Law and Order SVU. She then became obsessed and spent the summer watching all 13 seasons and forming an obsession with Mariska Hargitay.

Three people flew in for Alex's 21st birthday. 

Who does that? 

My cousin (age 8) saves up her allowance money to buy costume wigs.

My Grandpa  has bought two different plaques as gifts for my mother. He calls his new car "The Widow Magnet."

Then there is Dad: If you have seen the bright, interestingly printed pants that he wears every day, you need no further explanation. He is also BFF'S with the entire staff of the Washington County Sam's Club.  

My friend Mary refuses to watch inspirational movies, family movies, or movies with animals. She gets too emotionally attached and can't handle it when the plot turns south.

My sister Sam only cleans her house in the middle of the night. She also really loves Harry Potter. She dragged her husband to the Harry Potter theme park and bought me Harry's wand for Christmas. She used to walk on her tiptoes everywhere before the doctor told her it was damaging her feet. she actually still does it, and as a result her calf muscles are the size of an infant's head, so she can't wear boots.

My family... being strange.
Yes.. that is leopard print. 

Weird is just better. I would have hated a new apartment with no character.If I lived in a perfect apartment, my post-college living situation would have just been a fact or an address, instead of a story.

Being weird is also good for your relationships. The less you try to be normal, the more relatable you become . If you are yourself, you make the people around you feel comfortable enough to do the same.

I'm not saying that normal, even sometimes "generic" people cannot be loved. What I am saying is that they might be lost. No one is perfect, so people that try to be perfect are playing a part. They may not be in touch with themselves. They might be going through the motions of life without ever discovering who they really are. It's not a bad thing... it's just not as good as it could be.

I'm not telling you to become Tim Burton. Not everyone has to wear a dress made out of meat like Lady Gaga, or  even behave as a-dork-able as Zooey Deschanel... Celebrate your flaws, shortcomings, particularities and   hidden talents.You were made this way for a reason. Don't hide behind your fear of being judged. 

To quote the Backstreet boys... and I often DO quote the backstreet boys... 

"What makes you different Makes you beautiful"