My brother (at 18) is the same! But we have some red hair on both sides of the family, so it's somewhat understandable.

Both my grandads had red hair when they were younger (or so I'm told; they were both grey by the time I knew them.) My mum's dad's nickname is Gin (for ginger) and when my mum and uncle were growing up, he built a sailing dinghy from a kit that was named Ginger Pop.
Neither of my parents inherited the red hair, but my mum always suspected it would come through in our generation (is hasn't, except in my little brother's beard - why is beard hair often a different colour to head hair?) But for a year now I've been dying my dark blonde/light brown hair auburn with henna, and I often get comments from relatives about how red hair is in the family and how natural it looks on me.

Second story: at my high school there was an incredibly pretty girl with long ginger hair that grew into natural ringlets (I ended up developing kind of a crush). One of the teaching assistants, who was doing A level Art in her spare time) once painted her in Pre-Raphaelite style leaning wistfully against a tree or something.

update: there was a clerical error. I have now successfully voted!

Hi Toasties
Found out at the polls today that I've mysteriously disappeared from the electoral register.
Calming gifs please?

Okay so I'm only like 6 episodes in, so I won't check back in this thread after I post this because spoilers, but ohmigod I love Samira Wiley and Poussey is probably my favourite character.

Describing a dream in which I turned down Daniel Radcliffe.

As a Suzanne who hates that song, I'm appalled to find out there are more versions of it out there.

So last night I got too drunk and totally humiliated myself around people I wanted to be friends with, and now I feel shitty mentally and physically. Not what I needed to finish off a week that's pretty much been devoted to feeling bad about myself.
The thing is, I find social situations hard, and alcohol really helps with that. But once I start drinking, I don't want to stop, because it feels great... until it doesn't.
It's not like I'm an alcoholic, because I can go for weeks or months without drinking sometimes. I just have this problem with self-control.
:(

E.L.O 'Ticket to the Moon'
some lyrics

I've got a ticket to the moon / I'll be leaving here any day soon/ I've got a ticket to the moon / But I'd rather see the sun rise / In your eyes

I've got a ticket to the moon / I'll be rising high above the earth so soon / And the tears I cry might turn into the rain / That gently falls upon your window / You'll never know

if memory serves

I just paid the holding deposit on a new flat today! My flatmates and I had been looking at increasingly shitty places since February, and I was starting to seriously regret not taking one of the mediocre flats we saw at the beginning of the search, that in retrospect were starting to look quite good towards the end. We will be moving in in September, it's beautiful, and I feel so proud of myself because this particular prospect was my baby - I found it online, set up the viewing, filled in the forms and spoke to the letting agents, etc. etc.
I'm so relieved that we've finally secured it, but now I have to worry about the letting agents possibly screwing us over by trying to charge us for reference checks (which is illegal in Scotland). But they're not technically doing the illegal thing, they're like 'either pay £40 (plus VAT!) each for our reference checks, or provide [long list of documents and references] within 4 working days'. Which... is not feasible. Some of that stuff has to come from my guarantor's HR department, that's completely out of my control.
So idk what I'm going to do but I'm sure as heck not paying £50 for a reference check. They're just going to have to wait for my references to come through in their own time. At least I'm pretty sure now we have paid part of the deposit they can't renege on their end of the deal.
Being the lead tenant I feel a certain responsibility to prevent my friends from being screwed over but I feel weird about going against the wishes of (people I'm conditioned to think of as) authorities.
Sorry for hijacking your post with my rant. Best of luck with your house sale! Do you know where you will be moving to?