Beautiful autumn afternoon heading north on Montlake Blvd. in Seattle. U-turn to 520 to get north on I-5. At the U-turn there's always a panhandler and every single time I have an exchange, it's memorable. Yesterday. I'm stopped at the red light, this guy is outside my car, two feet away. He's about 6'4" with a wide, toothy smile. My window is open, it's unseasonably warm and the street is lined with trees dripping with yellow and red leaves. I've just been grocery shopping and there are a few bags on the floor behind my seat. "Howyadoing?" I ask the guy. He smiles at me and says nothing. His sign reads, "Never Thought I Would Be In This Position. Homeless. No Work. Broke" Everything is spelled correctly, I'm impressed.

I reach behind me and pull out a box of cookies out of one of the environmentally friendly bags. Gingerbread-ish with white icing. "Want some cookies?" I'm not feeling pity, I just want to share. They were on sale. One less box of cookies in the house and the guy had a nice smile. I'm not the cookie-eater in the house anyway.

He puts his sign done and smiles real wide. "Oh, yeah. Your timing is perfect."

I hand him the cookies. "Here you go."

He takes them, holds them to his chest and says, "Thanks, I just smoked a joint and I got the munchies REAL bad."

Light turns green. All I can do at this point is shrug and laugh and make my U-turn. Got me.

Again.

Redheads Rule

So, what is it about redheads? These two angels captured me the instant I saw them. Funny, curious, mischievous. Ran into them at a Florida restaurant. Their dad just sat there rolling his eyes, smiling, loving me loving them. Reminded me of going to the hairdresser with my mother as a kid. Women would ask for snippets of my hair so the colorist could match the red. I've now turned into one of those adults who ask little redheads, "Have you ever counted your freckles?"

Just yesterday, a man behind me in the airport security line whispered to me, "Pretty hair. My wife's hair was that color." Ah, but the shenanigans. Instead of the facts of life, the motherly advice I was given was, "stay out of trouble, you stick out like a sore thumb with that hair." She was right. Guilty or not, the redhead gets called out. Every time. And it hasn't ended. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Interesting redhead fact: We feel more pain than the rest of you (not just heartache). We're more sensitive to heat and need more anesthesia to knock us out. And it's very difficult to match our tooth color if we knock a few out. Which is all good incentive to stay cool and healthy.

Happy St. Patrick's Day.