On one of the online dating sites, i.e., those cyberspatial wastelands of Men Posing With Fish, Men Posing On Motorcycles and Men Posing with Fish On Motorcycles, the following question is asked of all willing participants:
Which would you rather be?
- Normal
- Weird
If you know anything about me, including anything I’ve said, written, conveyed with bizarre dance moves or otherwise expressed in the past 53 years, you’ll know that I checked “Weird.” Not only did I check “Weird,” I wrote WHAT A WEIRD QUESTION as a footnote, because the way I see it, this is a well-duh issue. Everyone in their right mind should want to be weird. I don’t trust people who don’t want to be weird. In fact, on the website in question, I automatically eliminate every man who checks “Normal.” I’m like, seriously, dude? What makes you think “Normal” is actually a thing? In my experience, there IS no normal. There ARE no normal people. There are only weird people who check “Weird” and weird people who check “Normal,” and I would MUCH MUCH MUCH rather spend time with self-aware weirdos than unwitting weirdos in denial.
I was reminded of this in Pittsburgh over the weekend, not because the city itself is divided into Weird and Normal camps (although most cities are) but because the airbnb my daughter had secured was decorated with such faux-Victorian flare, and outfitted so ornately with lace, dolls and “Gone With the Wind” cut-outs, that I instantly started to psychoanalyze its owner. I also instantly started to wonder whether we were trapped in some cheap horror movie of 1980s vintage, and I began running odds on which among our large group of travelers would be the first to die at the hands of a little Swiss manikin dressed in lederhosen.
DOOMED PERSON A: Did you hear that?
DOOMED PERSON B: Hear what?
DOOMED PERSON A: That high-pitched laugh coming from the bathroom! You must have heard it!
(High-pitched laugh comes from the bathroom.)
DOOMED PERSON C: What do you mean, a high-pitched laugh coming from the bathroom?
(DOOMED PERSON C goes into the bathroom.)
DOOMED PERSON A: DON’T GO IN THERE, CHAD! STOP!
DOOMED PERSON C: AHHHHHHHHHH!!!
DOOMED PERSON A: OH, MY GOD! CHAD! CHAD!
But nothing like that actually happened (and no one named Chad was actually with us). The apartment was clean and commodious. It was well-stocked with snacks. Packets of ear plugs were laid out to combat the noise of a nearby rail line. Its aura was far less evil than good-natured in its obsessive kitsch, and as we settled in, I felt at ease. Its owner’s forthright eccentricity began to reassure me; there was an openness to it, an innocent joy about it, that made me suspect we belonged to the same extended tribe of colossal oddballs. I knew nothing about her beyond her fondness for Clark Gable and satin bedspreads, but she was familiar to me. She was kin. And I knew, just knew, that she wouldn’t check “Normal,” either.
Figuring. Shit. Out. 
I agree. Normal is boring, confining and full or arbitrary, illusionary boundaries. Weird is liberating and encompasses Eccentric, Creative, Inspiring, and Spontaneous, as well as Implusive, Compulsive and Introverted. Etc., etc., etc…..