Day 06: A Fun Fact About Me
Being a red haired, left handed, only child in the Oklahoma of my youth was a trifecta for being fucked with. Seriously. The only way I could have stood out more was if I were missing a limb. Or Jewish.
My point though, only 1 to 2% of the world's population has red hair, and if you have red hair as a kid you're different from the get up and go. Factor in that my Mom owned and ran a beauty shop, and well, I got a lot of shit as well as admiration for my red hair.
If I had a dollar for every time someone in my youth said, 'Red on the head like the pecker on a poodle.' Ditto every time someone in my Mom's beauty shop commented on the color of my hair and if they could get it from a bottle. It's odd to be praised on one hand and teased mercilessly on the other. Typing that I recall that Lucy (as in the Lucy Show and her fire red hair) was another put-down I heard often in grade school.
I tell you all that though, for this, the fun fact about me.
I have an extremely high tolerance to physical pain.
Which I always thought was just me, until very recently when my man Bruce sent me a link to a story on ginger prejudice. Not the spice. Hair. People with red hair often get a lot of shit. To which I replied, no shit. Welcome to my world.
The thing is, in reading more about that story, I learned that red haired people (especially women) have a higher tolerance to physical pain because of a some mutation in a hormone receptor that deals with pigmentation.
Which might explain why I didn't go see the doctor until 10 hours after being blown up in a steel mill accident. I simply reassured everyone that I was ok to drive myself home. Then in denial about the severity of the injury (and unable to fully gauge the extent because of hair) I drank three Coors Lights in quick succession and went to bed. Waking up the next morning in more pain. I went to the steel mill's doc in box and learned that I had 2nd degree burns (with a few 3rd degree spots) over a good portion of my head. They then sent a nurse over to the Warehouse Market to purchase some disposable razors and then, after giving me a Valium, shaved the right side of my head clean, removing a lot of charred skin in the process.
It also explains why it took me three days to go to the doctor, after falling in a flag football game, to learn that I had broken my collarbone. By the time I went to the doctor, my right arm was hanging down to my knee because the right collarbone was busted to the point of not being able to hold up the arm. I'll never forget the doctor looking at me, prior to a proper examination, and asking, "Doesn't it hurt?"
It did hurt. But to be honest, it wasn't nothing a beer or two couldn't take the edge off of, which is my usual method of dealing with pain. Secondary fun fact about aboynamedstu. I don't like to take pills.
I'm the guy who after having his hernia fixed, only took three pain pills out of a full prescription. Ditto when I had my tonsils removed (which for the record is the most pain I've ever experienced. It hurt worse than the 2nd degree burns on the side of the head.)
Until I BLOG again...Pain don't hurt.
My point though, only 1 to 2% of the world's population has red hair, and if you have red hair as a kid you're different from the get up and go. Factor in that my Mom owned and ran a beauty shop, and well, I got a lot of shit as well as admiration for my red hair.
If I had a dollar for every time someone in my youth said, 'Red on the head like the pecker on a poodle.' Ditto every time someone in my Mom's beauty shop commented on the color of my hair and if they could get it from a bottle. It's odd to be praised on one hand and teased mercilessly on the other. Typing that I recall that Lucy (as in the Lucy Show and her fire red hair) was another put-down I heard often in grade school.
I tell you all that though, for this, the fun fact about me.
I have an extremely high tolerance to physical pain.
Which I always thought was just me, until very recently when my man Bruce sent me a link to a story on ginger prejudice. Not the spice. Hair. People with red hair often get a lot of shit. To which I replied, no shit. Welcome to my world.
The thing is, in reading more about that story, I learned that red haired people (especially women) have a higher tolerance to physical pain because of a some mutation in a hormone receptor that deals with pigmentation.
Which might explain why I didn't go see the doctor until 10 hours after being blown up in a steel mill accident. I simply reassured everyone that I was ok to drive myself home. Then in denial about the severity of the injury (and unable to fully gauge the extent because of hair) I drank three Coors Lights in quick succession and went to bed. Waking up the next morning in more pain. I went to the steel mill's doc in box and learned that I had 2nd degree burns (with a few 3rd degree spots) over a good portion of my head. They then sent a nurse over to the Warehouse Market to purchase some disposable razors and then, after giving me a Valium, shaved the right side of my head clean, removing a lot of charred skin in the process.
It also explains why it took me three days to go to the doctor, after falling in a flag football game, to learn that I had broken my collarbone. By the time I went to the doctor, my right arm was hanging down to my knee because the right collarbone was busted to the point of not being able to hold up the arm. I'll never forget the doctor looking at me, prior to a proper examination, and asking, "Doesn't it hurt?"
It did hurt. But to be honest, it wasn't nothing a beer or two couldn't take the edge off of, which is my usual method of dealing with pain. Secondary fun fact about aboynamedstu. I don't like to take pills.
I'm the guy who after having his hernia fixed, only took three pain pills out of a full prescription. Ditto when I had my tonsils removed (which for the record is the most pain I've ever experienced. It hurt worse than the 2nd degree burns on the side of the head.)
Until I BLOG again...Pain don't hurt.
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