redheads: the endangered species

People have asked --so just to clarify-- my blog's title does not insinuate any other situation except the one where I'm a strawberry blonde lost in a population overwhelmingly% brunette. I guess not so much lost any more, I mean come on, navigation is not rocket science here. 12 metro lines that get you anywhere for 1€, free easy transfers, and a functioning bus heaven. And by heaven I mean in contrast to the bus hell which is Madison public transportation. De todos modos, what this blurb comes down to is that I'm pigmently outnumbered.

"The way things are going, red hair will either be extremely rare or extinct by the end of the century." -Dr. John Gray, Oxford Hair Foundation

Times when it's okay to stand out:

1) You're the only "Emily" in your class & your professor's had such a hard time pronouncing it the first time that they can't forget it, or you. Or maybe it's just that you're a redhead.

2) Your Spanish friends have never had an easier time finding someone in a crowded bar or metro station.

3) It gets you real original nicknames... like... oh, Novia de Spiderman (Spiderman's girlfriend).

Times when it's not so cute:

1) Metro eagles.
My term for the people who often stare at me with a displeased expression of "why has your endangered species just seated itself across from me on this metro car?"
Often old ladies.

-or the opposite of the metro eagle-

Metro wolf.

ex) the sudoko-ing man sitting across from me on the metro who followed me when I walked to the other end of the car to greet a friend... and moved to the seat directly in front of me after my friend left.

2) Requires extra caution when taking part in a botellon.

3) Walking into a overwhelmingly eumelanin packed bar trying your hardest to pretend you're not the extraterrestra (alien).

Scene I, Act I

Chus: "I noticed when you walk in, all eyes go to you, I know."

Emily: helpless face

Chus: "Ok well when you are in trouble,

wink me.

I know what to do."

Scene I, Act II

Local campus bar, about 3:00 am.

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A Spanish creeper catches a glimpse of a flaring blonde-redlike head across the room and advances towards it. Upon reaching his destination, he attempts to rico suave his hands around the waist of the red haired girl. But before long the creeper catches the girl winking her right eye and is suddenly pushed aside by her boyfriend, Chus Gonzalez. ''Shit," the creeper reflects as he retreats to the other side of the bar to stare some more from behind his inebriated pupils.

Final thoughts:

Never have I been happier with the outcome of a wink than when it results in my self-appointed bodyguard (Chus) rushing to my side as my ever-convincing "boyfriend" to ward off the unwanted.

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