betcha didn't know

I've been tagged with both '7 quirks' and '6 quirks' tags, but I can't narrow down. Since I'm American, more is always better....no, really, I just have a lot of quirks. Here's a countdown:

9. I always eat beets with Miracle Whip on them. It's a family thing.

8. I hate being tickled, truly hate it. I conditioned myself not to be ticklish because I figured it would discourage potential perpetrators. Now my husband can get me, but more often than not it makes me angry, sulky and vengeful. Not giggly.
{ask him about the neck tickling. that was a bad one.}

7. I dislike all housework that isn't vacuuming, sweeping, or loading the dishwasher. Don't worry, I do it anyway.
(we don't even have a dishwasher right now....I don't want to talk about it)

6. When I was a little girl, I colored all block letters, etc in rainbow order. ROYGBIV you know - I couldn't understand why anyone would do otherwise.

5. I cannot eat dessert before dinner, or dinner food after dessert. This applies to lunch and breakfast as well. If I've had something sweet, no matter how good that pickle or piece of meat looks, I won't eat it. Can't.

4. a) I can't stand not knowing what direction I'm facing. I pride myself on my innate compass, which saved me and my friends many times in Europe. It also provides great shame when I am sometimes wrong.

4. b) I must be spatially oriented, because when I think of people, I always think of where they are at. It's like my brain is a giant map with bodies and faces on it. I like to know where people live, work, and vacation so I can place them on my map. I think I noticed this quirk in the 5th grade.

3. Call me disgusting, but I have showered every other day for probably 12 years now. My hair and skin dry out if I shower more often, so for a decade my routine has been built around shower- and non-shower-days. This includes exercise, baptism temple trips, haircuts, swimming, and anything else that requires washing hair.

2. I spell words out in sign language in my head. Constantly. When I see/hear a word or name, I instantly convert it to sign-letter-spelling. This is something I've done since 6th grade (only back then it was actual hand-spelling; a boy asked me once if I had a twitch), and it's such a part of me that I don't even realize what I'm doing anymore. I've tried to stop, really I have.

1. I have this deeply-rooted, completely irrational fear that someone will poke my sternum and I will die. Not even joking. Just thinking of the Heimlich Maneuver gives me the willies. Can you die of a torn/broken sternum? Internal bleeding perhaps? Cracked ribs? I think not. I told you it was irrational.
(Yes, Mr. Morgan knows about this, and yes he torments me. He thinks I'm just ticklish there, but I AM NOT.)