A friend wants to meet and you think it's a hit.

You jump in a cab and say "Follow that car!"

You find yourself explaining everything outloud .

Your neighbors find you going through their desk drawers.

===From: ellcon@webtv.net

You try and switch coffee cups when your spouse serves you breakfast in bed.

Ellen 2

===From: lcdumas@aol.com (Lcdumas)

You hear heavy breathing on the phone and think of danger - not sex.

You examine your vitamins to be certain no one has replaced them with poison.

You take your cream of mushroom soup to be screened for deadly aminita before you heat it up.

You are keeping a journal purely for reasons of alibi.

Linda D in TX

===From: Charlie <chally@flash.net>

You react to every question posed to you with a quick head snap and respond "Why do you ask!?"

===From: Jim Barker <jbsc11901@pop.cableinet.co.uk>

Every time you leave a room, you keep popping back in to say 'There's just one thing...."

Jim 1

===From: "Melissa Cooper" <mmcooper@alumni.utexas.nospam.net>

You wake up in the middle of the night, three nights in a row, thinking someone is in your house.

Melissa, tired

===From: Keith Snyder <keith@woollymammoth.com>

You look terrible in a fedora but wear one anyway.

You develop a drinking habit on purpose.

You already know what you'll say if anyone ever asks you where you were the night of June 19th.

You think a crumpled raincoat is a fashion statement.

Your fantasies about killing your spouse/in-law/neighbor used to be much more vague.

===From: Sarah Weinman <nospam@newsranger.com>

And most importantly of all...

You find you have inexplicably increased your usage of the word "sluice" in the midst of everyday conversation.

Sarah

===From: Jim Barker <jbsc11901@pop.cableinet.co.uk>

Every time you walk into a crowded room, you say "I expect you're wondering why I called you all here tonight..."

===From: Charlie <chally@flash.net>

When you go to a restaraunt you make sure you take the seat that lets you watch the door.

When someone is following you, you make a mental note of everything in your pockets you might defend yourself with. Even if it's your Mom.

You daydream about who would be most suspected if you were murdered.

When you can't find your favorite shirt you consider who had the motive, and opportunity to steal it.

You've attempted to pick a lock even if the key is in your hand.

===From: lcdumas@aol.com (Lcdumas)

>> >When you go to a restaraunt you make sure you take the seat that lets you watch the door.

>Lcdumas wrote:

>> My husband does that, and never reads a mystery!

>> Linda D in TX

>Charlie chally@flash.net

>Maybe he's keeping an eye on YOU! :)

I think we're BOTH reading too many mysteries!

Linda D

===From: mystmoush@aol.com (Mystmoush)

When an old friend/lover calls, your first thought is that they're on trial for murder.

Eileeeen from OH

===From: Pam K <my2pugs@yahoo.com>

You think of places to hide the axe/lug wrench/tire iron so it's there, just in case.

When you go into a public restroom you check the windows to see if you could crawl through, just in case.

When the car in back of you gets off of the freeway at your exit and makes the same turns, you wonder if you've got a tail.

Pam K -I've never done any of these things! : )

===From: Jim Barker <jbsc11901@pop.cableinet.co.uk>

You spend all day on RAM when you should be working...

Jim (procrastinate) Barker

===From: "kas" <kas101@earthlink.net>

When you leave your home everyday, you wonder what clues they would find there to solve your murder.....

===From: justifi@aol.com (Justifi)

Subject: Re: You Might be Reading Too Many Mysteries if....

You go to a place that requires you to use an intercome to get in and forgetting the apt number you push all the buttons hoping someone will let you in. I did this today!

patty

===From: lynn@semiotics.com (LynnAllen)

You wonder which one of your acquaintances is going to get it next.

You linger lovingly over every detail of the overly elaborate meals you cook.

You can sit in a car for 12 hours and never have to go to the bathroom.

When the funding for your project is cut and everyone else in the department stops working on it, you have to finish it "because it's the right thing to do."

It's not a dinner date, it's an alibi.

Lymaree

===From: jls411@aol.comnospam (JLS411)

You dust your desk for fingerprints to make sure your cow-orkers haven't been "borrowing" your office supplies.

Jenni :-)

===From: "Dr. Teeth" <dr.teeth@virgin.netREMOVE>

You've dismissed the Butler as a suspect even before you begin reading...

===From: "Amy Glezen Simpson" <a.glezensimpson@worldnet.att.net>

You try to memorize the license plates of cars that look suspicious.

You wonder whether you could adequately describe the person that just walked by.

===From: "Larisa", larisa@geeklife.com

You get a tattoo so that your corpse would be even more easily identified.

==From: Renee, gothmannr@webtv.net (Renee):

You feel an urge to cultivate a new circle of best friends including the local police chief, a pathologist, a catholic nun, a 300 lb. ex-con with a murky past, a feisty ex-hooker,....

You keep an official looking ID in your wallet for those times you may need to sneak into a building

You print up a bunch of business cards and hand them out saying to people--"give me a call if you think of anything to add"

==From: Bonadie, bonadie@aol.com:

You check all doors and closets and other hiding spaces whenever you come home to an empty house.

You unlock your car door standing well away from the car so the person hiding underneath can't reach out and grab your ankle.

You test your "key witness competence" by trying to describe the guy who just pumped gas into your car, the guy who waited on you at the 7-eleven, etc.

You watch the automatic garage door close behind you after you've driven the car in, to make sure no one has done the dive-and-roll thing to make it into your garage before the door has closed.

You wonder how long it would be before someone was concerned enough at your absence to call the police.

You mentally rehearse what you would do if you came across a dead body.