We all know pen clickers, key swingers, nail tappers, foot shakers, gum snappers, coffee slurpers, knuckle strummers, bracelet adjusters, phone checkers, paper shufflers, and shoelace re-tiers. Lately I’ve been observing certain personal behaviors of the people in my orbit. And when I’ve noticed specific patterns repeating, I’ve been tuning in even more closely. Like for instance, I was in a fancy steak house in Midtown Manhattan at a business lunch recently. And I saw that our waiter was very fond of clicking his ballpoint pen a bunch before and after he wrote down our order. So I looked around at a few other waiters and shockingly they all had the pen click going on! Coincidence? I think not.
This reminded me that I used to work with woman who had obviously fake nails– the long, red Cruella type. They were way too long for keyboard usage if you ask me, but nobody did. Anyway she had this habit in meetings of drumming her nails against her phone when she was speaking. And instead of being annoyed by the sound, I was mezmerized by the rhythmic clatter. It was practically hypnotic. Also, the meetings were insanely long and boring and it gave me something to focus on!
I once had a boss who had the oddest habit of walking passed my office and tapping twice on the glass wall instead of saying hello. Mr. Double Tap did this to every office on our row as he made his way down the block-long hallway of our group. It was sort of his signature move each morning. So if I was working on something or reading and heard his thump thump, I never looked up but shouted a hello knowing that he was cruising by doing rounds.
I’m a paper person. I like writing things down on lists and printing out documents to read so that I don’t have to scroll on screen. When I’m done with the papers, I always fold them once neatly in half and discard them properly. I worked with a gal who religiously crumpled up every piece of paper she threw into the trash! Big presentation decks, small memos, mail, post-its, envelopes– they all got the Erica Barry in the movie Something’s Gotta Give treatment of crinkle and toss, minus the hysterical crying of course.
My Mom would argue that chewing gum must be handed out by the fistful to most grocery store check out folks as the proud crack of their gum seems guaranteed at most Acme, Whole Foods, and Shop Rite locations east of the Mississippi. Is it because they have easy access to gum and candy at the impulse rack near their stations? Hmmm. More research on this might be required.
To me there’s nothing funnier that a barbequing dad snapping those tongs before each and every use and incessantly in between each flip of the grill. Is it that anxious can’t-wait-ta-grab-ya nervousness that drives them to click and clack? So much for the grill and chill, right??
All of these folks make up the musical background of our lives. And I know we all do our part in adding to the symphony. So during the snap, crackle and pop of your day, I hope you smile as you realize maybe for the first time that your shake and double flick of your two sugar packets with your thumb and pointer followed by a brisk tap of your spoon three times against your coffee cup is your signature! (Did you realize that before today?)
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