The Redheaded StepChild... in the 12 step program.

Me with my sweet nephew Blake... The story starts with him, and ends with him since I can't seem to move this photo to the bottom(See previous post about my lack of technical skills)

"Once in his life, every man is entiltled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead"-Lucille Ball"While the rest of the species is descended from apes, redheads are descended from cats." Mark Twain
Me in Grade School, about 9 or 10, I was mature looking for my age... wasn't I ?

Hey, Well... i have sorta dropped the ball with blogging everyday, i know I have things to say but I can't seem to get my thoughts in order... but here goes. I was thinking I would tell you about a driving force in my life... My hair. Now, know this... I am not a hair bear, it is just got out of bed, bedhead messy mostly but it is RED and my eyes are brown, incredibly rare combo... Now, I know a few of you are redheads too, but most of you are not and that's because it is quite rare still, even though many people are "dying" to be a redhead. Pun intended... I didn't always cherish my hair, as a child I was teased viciously because of it. I even asked my Mom to dye it many times so I could be "Like everyone else" By the time I was in Junior High/Middle School, the same boys who had teased me were taken in by my "Charm"... So now, I consider my red hair a lucky charm of sorts.

Me, after embracing my Hair color...

Let us look at the stereotypes... Fiery temper(Sometimes Check), Sexpot/sexy/overly sexual/oversexed(Sorta check and I wishand everything in between), Fiesty Personality(Double check), Adventureous(Definite Check), Ugly(Not a chance check), Snobby(Never in my life check), prone to sunburn(Ouch Check), Irish(A little Check, mostly German), Trouble(Usually check), Fire Crotch(Yep, Tru dat check), Charlie Brown loves the little Redheaded Girl(Damn right, check)...

Well, because of the teasing, i found strength in red-haired characters growing up like Pippi Longstocking, Strawberry Shortcake, Nancy Drew, Daphne from Scooby Doo, Jane Jetson and Wilma Flintstone(Pretty strongwilled wives), Anne of Green Gables, and the list goes on... as time went on I added Jessica Rabbit and Ariel, the little mermaid to that list and more recently Jesse from Toy Story, but anyone/anything with reddish hair would do for my young mind... including Garfield, and Oliver from Oliver and Company... In my subconcious mind, I thought if redheads were so ugly, why would so many people chose to make their characters redheaded... there were more redheaded character than they were actual redheads... LOL, I am happy that the young redheads now have Kim Possible, Ginger from the series as told by Ginger, Madeline, Darby from my friends Tigger and Pooh, and many many others... My favorite was always Pippi... who was strong and no one teased her and everyone wanted to be her friend... even though she had bright red hair in braids that stuck straight out from the sides of her head.

The reason I mention my redhead bliss... Is that I found that redheaded child again several times recently... Julianne Moore(Actress) has a wonderful book series called Freckleface Strawberry which teaches redheads to love their hair and even find being different wonderful... and I wished that it was around when I was growing up. But the biggest reason is my youngest nephew Blake is obviously a redhead... and his parents(My brother and his wife) aren't very happy about it, because my brother saw how I was teased and doesn't want his son to face the same and my SIL is a Guidance Counseler whose seen the redheaded children who are teased and tried to console them. Well, for a while, Blake will be 1 in May, they kept saying he has strawberry blonde hair, but when I saw it... I knew it was the same as mine. My hair was dark strawberry blonde as a child and it's darkened over the years... but it was more strawberry than blond, if you know what I mean. The other day, my brother finally admitted to my Mom... "Blake has Maria's hair" and sorrow filled his voice. I understand not wanting your child to suffer, I wouldn't wish the teasing on any child but Kids are cruel and if they don't tease you for having red-hair, then they'll find something else. Blake is a beautiful child, with a sweet temperament and a smile that light up the room... He will win over his critics, like I did. I know he will... I would be more worried about him getting our metabolism(Instead of his Mom's), since FAT has been much more of a burden, for much more of my life than having red-hair. i guess I should just be glad that the FAT came during my teenage years, or I would have been the FAT Red-haired Kid... Double Whammy!