[moxie]

I was a very tame child/teenager. Raised in a single-parent home and knew for as long as I can remember that my mother didn't want me (had that verified when I turned 18 and flat out asked her). Quite often, I think about why in the hell did I not get in trouble at school, with the police, get pregnant, use drugs or any of that other "hellion" stuff because I had no supervision or rules and was left alone for days at a time for years and years. I have yet to come up with an answer.

My mother is very conservative and the way I disobeyed was through my appearance, in hopes to embarrass/shame her in the community in which she was well-known. I wore nothing but black, dyed my red hair every color under the sun, had "punk" haircuts and would go through a white can of Aqua Net (remember the old aerosol haze that would linger in a room? ) in less than a week. She hated all of it and I loved it.