Of cheer and colour choices

[Tabouli]

Ahhh.

Late at night after a Latin-dancing class break-up party (!), I had one of those affirming moments driving home.  One of those moments when you look back at drastically life-altering decisions you made and realise you did the Right Thing.  In my case, quitting my full-time job and going freelance, a decision which was, at last, entirely my own, untainted by the expectations and paranoias that have haunted so much of my life.  My life is *so* much better now: in a mere four months my social circle (or circles: I tend to have one finger in a few circles - keeps the mind flexible) has dramatically expanded, I have so much more time and energy for other people, I have started writing again, I've done all sorts of interesting classes and courses, I feel calmer and more relaxed... all things worth much, much, much more than the extra money I would have earned by staying in my job.  I'm a burst worker, and 9-5 Mon-Fri work makes me break out in hives.

Not a bad musing, especially considering that I also spent several hours today helping a friend of mine who is 5 years younger than me move into her *second*, 3 bedroom with garden house with her boyfriend (she got an inheritance at 20, from, believe it or not, an old rich great-aunt that she visited once when she was 18!).  I carried boxes dutifully and tried to keep my envy under control, because of course one sad fact about not being full-time employed means that buying real estate is not an option.  Moreover, I am terrible at relationships and find them almost more stressful than they're worth (which sometimes saddens me when other people remind me that good ones are possible).

My other musing was one about colour.  I love colour.  Wonderful stuff.  Perhaps my father being colour blind has made me really appreciate it.  When I first met my born-blind friend Jacques, one of the first questions I asked him (after fretting about whether it was OK to do so) was what his concept of colours was (he said associations with texture and temperature and smells).  Fascinating.  Anyway...

Any thoughts about the use of colour in HP clothing?  From memory, Snape (and the students) wears black, McGonagall wears green tartan, Dumbledore favours purple robes, and the Beauxbatons students wear pale blue.  Presumably JKR chose these colours for a reason - what do you think?  Are the French pale blue?

How about you OT listmembers?  What colour clothing do you favour?

I myself am very colour-conscious.  I sometimes wake in the morning and have absolute cravings to wear a particular colour, which give me terrible trouble if I don't own anything of that colour and can't buy it (I had an extreme green craving a couple of years ago, at a time when the available greens were so unappealing that I didn't own any: it was awful, I nearly wrapped myself in a green towel in desperation...)

Tabouli (currently wearing a nice, bluish green, unlike the sage and khaki stuff from which she shrinks)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]