Everyone is a little bit nerdy sometimes

Everyone has a nerdy thing.

My barista makes the best coffee by far in my local area. He has a cool designer-style girlfriend. He owns a cool espresso bar. He has cool music playing in the shop (with some worrying exceptions). He also chases helicopters. A helicopter stalker if you will. As in, he was cooking the evening meal last week and heard the exciting sound of rotating chopper blades. He screamed at his girlfriend to watch the stove whilst he jumped in his car and literally followed the helicopter to its landing in a nearby suburb. He even admits to being known by several helicopter crews as "the helicopter guy". Yes, he's the one who casually walks over after landing to check out the helicopter and its features and without a hint of self-consciousness, interviews the pilot about his experiences with that type of aircraft.

His assistant in the shop was giggling away with me as he told the story and I challenged her to admit her own nerdy secret. She is an otherwise cool chick. To demonstrate her normally cool type behaviour I should point out that she and her cool husband happened to get married on the wettest day in 40 years. Not to be flustered, she cheekily donned a pair of designer gumboots for her outdoor wedding photos and I kid you not, they are some of the most stunning, amazing, joyful photos I have ever seen. Nevertheless, she and her husband cycle on the spot. They set their bikes up on some sort of stationary rig and cycle together in their lounge room. Even though it isn't traditionally nerdy, it's still nerdy. It's nerdiness is defined by its extremeness. Like nothing will stop their need to ride.

My nerdy thing? Yeah, it falls into the traditionally nerdy category. Amateur theatre. Yes folks. I'm what those in the know call "a carnie". I know a few show tunes. Occasionally whilst trying to impress friends with recent purchases on my ipod, I've been known to quickly skip through a few Les Miserables London Production numbers that have worked their way into the mix. I like to throw a few theatre terms around in conversation with my non-carnie friends to make myself sound even more cultured than I already am. "Yeah, I don't think I can come to the BBQ you had planned, we've got bump-out that day and I'm responsible for moving the flats..." Yes, you see? Nerds away!

I'm also a massive spelling nerd. I am all about "there/they're/their" and "your/you're" and the amount of people who can't spell the word "definitely" constantly astonishes me. I swear I have seen 50 versions of this word. Now this is NOT to say that I don't occasionally struggle with spelling myself. I'm even now looking at the word "occasionally" and wondering how I went with that and if there is indeed another 'n' required. I would be an absolute idiot to blog about my perfect spelling but I do admit that it never stops interesting me. I never stop being annoyed by people spelling words incorrectly on shop blackboards. Capuccino is a classic.

You may scoff at my nerdish ways but you should ask yourself this...if you had to sell yourself, really advertise yourself, to someone you really liked, what wouldn't you tell them? For example: "Hi, I'm so-and-so. I like rock-climbing, surfing, going to music festivals, drinking with my friends and ..."

bird-watching?
collecting war memorabilia?
playing with meccano?
scrapbooking?
listening to Demis Roussos records?
online Dungeons and Dragons?
writing my own self-indulgent blog?

Please feel to add your own nerdy confessions... you know you have something lurking.