This week was Colors Week. Perhaps predictably, I got all jumbled. I seem to make a mess of the easy weeks. Also, this week I was recovering from a horrific fall down the rabbit-hole. I’m not sure if you can tell, but last week’s post is positively black with secrets. It makes Hamlet, Lived By: look like an episode of Frasier or something. Anyway, back to the rabbit-hole. It took me some time to clamber out.
Very level-headed by now, as I’ve begun Week 21 in earnest. But enough about that. You can hear all about that next week.
MONDAY: Yellow/Violet
On Monday my mother was in town. This posed a problem. How was I supposed to enjoy fine dining with my mother if I could only eat yellow, violet, & white foods?
Well at least I managed to dress myself. I wore yellow underwear & a yellow tank top & a yellow necklace & violet socks. I don’t have yellow pants or anything & anyway, that would have looked gaudy. I was forbidden to be gaudy.
My mother arrived in the afternoon with her husband & my dog. I felt much more myself once I had Bella back in my disinterested embrace.
Later we all got dinner. & I figured out how to do it. I had lobster tail (white), & filet mignon cooked blue-rare. You can’t tell me blue & red don’t make violet. Also some creamed corn (yellow & white). For dessert? A good one. Lemon meringue pie.
I was supposed to consider, all day, how things might be part of a larger plan. Consider it I did. With this whole project, it’s kind of hard not to.
I was also supposed to spend an hour on a spiritual activity. I read the Bible.
TUESDAY: Red
On Tuesday (Red day) I got up early to see my mother’s husband read his book to a gang of unruly Jewish teenagers. His book was very funny.
I dressed in black with red underwear a nice camel cashmere coat & a very bright red lipstick. It was a kind of outdated look but it won me much approval from shopgirls when we went Christmas shopping later.
color is overrated
I had gnocchi with red sauce for lunch & lots of delicious red & white sushi for dinner.
I was also supposed to vigorously start & finish something. Like have a heart to heart. With love.
So I caught up with my old boyfriend from high school. Haven’t talked to him in over a year, probably. I’ll admit it was completely coincidental as I did not carry my directives in the forefront of my mind this week, but it was a good long successful talk. It ended with the exchange of photographs from the old days & plenty of warm wishes.
WEDNESDAY: Orange
I ate some oranges. I put on an orange dress with some skinny jeans. I met up with Shannon. We sat at a large picture window. I drank beer & ate some salmon chowder. Shannon had coffee.
then she had some salmon chowder too
The hotel was overlooking the ocean. Some policemen on horses rode by.
I went home & made some microwavable (orange!) Kraft Dinner. Ate that & some (white!) microwave popcorn. & then Shannon rejoined me a little later & we had some cheetos. & some whiskey.
What did we talk about? Everything was fine until I stood up. I walked Shannon to her car & then I walked the dog. I was supposed to do something creative. I think — well, & this is hard because everything I do is creative, but — that my creative use of my sense of balance was the most creative of all my activities that day.
THURSDAY: Green
I thought Thursday was supposed to be green but it wasn’t. I messed it up. I didn’t realize until Friday. That’s ok, I did a really good job of it anyway.
See, I was feeling homesick for the greatest country on earth because it was Thanksgiving there but in Canada it was just another boring Thursday. I love holidays, they’re all I live for. So I decided I’d have a green & white Thanksgiving for two with Shannon in my home. She’s not American, but I don’t hold it against her. She does have family in Texas, after all.
some folksy hors d'oeuvres
She came, bearing dill pickle chips, mint chip ice cream, & margarita mix, just as I was putting the chicken in the oven. By the way, I was wearing a green sweater. Shannon wasn’t wearing any visible green, but she assured me that she had green underwear. Good enough.
Doesn’t this sound kind of like Thanksgiving on Mars?
it might as well have been
We were starved. We had an hour & a half. We ate some chips & drank some drink, & the dog made sure the chicken wasn’t going anywhere.
my dog is strictly from hunger
Eventually, just as we were about to collapse, the (white) chicken & (white) potatoes & (green) broccoli were ready.
happy! thanksgiving!
& we sat down & ate & wow. For whatever reason, it was one of the best meals of my life. Shannon assures me it was one of the best meals of hers too. It was probably the most perfect roast chicken ever made & we ate nearly the whole thing between the two of us.
A long while later we had dishes of ice cream. Mint chip for Shannon, vanilla for me.
If I were to describe our Thanksgiving in three words, it would be crazy, fun, & bold. Conveniently, my directives had told me to experience the world in just that way.
what do you know
FRIDAY: Blue
Friday was the new blue. I dressed in it head to toe. I took a lot of pictures of myself in the mirror to prove it. I climbed around on the counters. You like that sort of thing, don’t you?
here is the creepiest one
I got in touch with a good friend who has recently (horror of horrors) quit Facebook. But everything’s ok & email will do.
Also I ate some blueberry yogurt & drank a blue smoothie & made a meal of (white) chicken with (white) mushrooms in (white) cream sauce. & bread.
SATURDAY: Indigo
Saturday was my “sabbath.” I wasn’t allowed to cook or prepare food. So I ate cold leftover chicken with cream sauce with my hands. I also drank a purple smoothie. I didn’t clean, because my life didn’t depend on it. I dressed head to toe in blue.
Later that night, I went to a party for Lexi, who is going away. Back to Dallas, the lucky girl! I wore a blue dress. We played a drinking game.
& i played my cards right
Later that night I met up with Shannon & we went to another going away party. This one was a glam-themed party & everyone was very dressed up. So I put on a purple wig. Xero’s wig. Remember Clown Week?
Alas, no pictures. I was, by then, somewhat the worse for the wear.
I made it home, & that was my week. Uneventful, perhaps, but you know, one lives some weeks more than others. & the occasional quiet week is always a relief. God only knows what will become of me next!
Absolutely, colorfully, fabulous! I think I’ll live this week soon. Color (and lack of color) is almost everything to a designer.
i can transform ya. hmmmm….guess that proves she’s delusional.
meow!
Sorry to say, but this week’s post was a little disappointing. It feels very impersonal and distant and has a much more Hamlet, Lived By vibe than any other of the daily posts from the past. I don’t mean to chastise you; after all, the quality of the post may be a result of your writing it during a week that restricts you from being clever. But, I got the impression that when the daily format changed into a weekly blog your audience could expect meatier and more thoughtful posts filled with witty allusions to literature and pop culture. Was I wrong?
Maybe I’m having a much more difficult time weaning myself from the daily blog posts than I expected. Or, maybe I’m a bit of dunce and don’t get it this week.
Oh you’re right of course. & part of it is Buddhism week. Living colors week was fine but extremely boring to recount & not particularly demanding. Sometimes it happens that way. I mean if you think about it I’m living a series of nested lives & sometimes I might be a little distracted when it comes time to write a report on the outermost shell. & how it spent it summer vacation.
However, never fear. I’m going to be around in the comments under each weekly schedule, posting daily reports when the mood strikes. All is not yet lost for you, my readers.
If you really miss me so terribly
lol I miss you terribly!
I find your point of view interesting. I have a different take on this week’s post. I feel lucky that Emily has decided to share a portion of her life with whoever shows up.
For that is what she is doing. Why she decided to do this? I am still uncertain. However, I do know that she isn’t getting paid. And isn’t that the beauty of doing something like this? One gets to post, or not post, whatever one wants.
I know that for me, that was one of the things I loved most about blogging. I only had to please myself. If the people who came to my site were bored? Oh well. Nobody made them click on my site, read about the way I made gravy.
So, yes, sometimes Emily might choose to write “meatier and more thoughtful posts filled with witty allusions to literature and pop culture” and I will read them and be grateful. And if she has a bland week, I will read that and be grateful as well. Personally, I appreciate a break week every once in a while.
As a mother, a little placid calm, for one of your children, is a wonderful thing.
oh mom, it’s alright, i don’t mind. i mean she’s right that this post was no good & also i don’t feel obliged to entertain anybody. so when somebody tells me “i’m not entertained” it doesn’t upset me. i mean, it would only upset me if i were badly hoping they would be. you know?
this was a dull post & i don’t mind if people find it dull. it is! but so what? it’s kind of nice to disappoint sometimes.
lots of my friends have told me “oh emily, i used to read your blog every day. but then, no offense, i kind of lost interest…” & i’m like: “i feel you! i wouldn’t read it myself.”
oops I put a smiley face… why do you not like these again?
who me? oh i like them fine.
i only don’t like them when people insert them in ludicrously incongruous ways.
eg: “you look fat in that dress
”
but “hi
” or whatever.
fine.
Ah but we do! As we ponder if the lack of punctuation at the end of your last sentence is significant – no teasing ellipse, affirming question mark, smug period, mongering exclamation or distracting dash? Just there…
oh you see, curiously enough, i wrote that comment from my iphone. i suppose the “if you really miss me so terribly” was the beginning of something else that i never ended up saying. but there was no way to scroll down or up or anything. & it just got tacked onto the end.
i kind of like it… it seems ominous & poetic & passive-aggressive.
but really it’s just like, an elaborate typo.
I agree. I found the lack of a punctuation perplexing.
For some reason, the sentence reminded me of Lolita. There is a coy, antagonistic quality to it. Possibly not intentional (as Emily notes), but it’s there nonetheless.
Anyway, it reminded me of Humbert Humbert’s inability to deal with Lolita being a teenager: ‘I was not really quite prepared for her fits of disorganized boredom, intense and vehement griping, her sprawling, droopy, dopey-eyed style, and what is called goofing off.’
Mom, I too feel a great priviledge to be allowed into Emily’s multiple lives. However, Emily strikes me as someone who does not do things halfheartedly. And, I don’t think she would have started the blog unless she felt that she would have something compelling to say. That’s why the post surprised me. It’s indifferent and cursory.
There is no doubt that the project makes Emily’s blog unique. But, it’s Emily’s writing and demeanor that engages and compels total strangers to tune in every day or every week. You are right to assert that under the circumstances she does not owe anyone anything, and should write what she wants, how she wants, and when she wants. And, we should be content if she writes at all. But, when she does choose to write. I hope it is seeping with Emily-isms. Otherwise, the blog will be like millions of others out there in the ether of the internet that serve no other purpose than to satisfy some vain attempt to publicly catalogue the banal and mundane.
you know what i like?
i like that the bad blog has provoked more interesting comments. i much prefer the complicated & thoughtful response that emerged from PA’s disappointment to endless strings of “you go girl!”
not that there’s anything wrong with “you go girl!”
but it can’t be all carrot no stick
i like some thoughtful debate
& i’m amused by the snide little barbs that pop up now & then “OH YOU u think ur SO IMPORTANT :p” etc.
it’s hysterical raving that i have a problem with, but there’s only been one or two instances of that…
& in retrospect
i like that too
in fact… i kind of like
everything about everything
maybe it’s december. december is my kind of month.
keep it coming patricia. ptolemy has his mind on oh more important things
& i liked the lolita comment
it’s kind of like this project is the humbert to my lolita
or maybe you’re all the humbert humberts
even the ladies
especially the ladies
gordon might tell me “oh emily, stop trying to be clever”
but i’m just being myself hh oh i’m just being my incorrigible self.
I totally feel Humbert’s pain. Emily was just like that on her visit. “Take me somewhere!” “Oh my god I’m bored!” “Nothing’s happening on the internet!” “Not enough people love me!” “I don’t like the way that tree over there looks!” “I’m sad!” “This whiskey tastes funny!” “Everyone is mean to me!” And so forth. The only thing that seems to quiet her down and ease her general agony over the state of things is food, so it’s no surprise that food-color week was satisfying to her, if not all her readers…
as i read this i kept thinking about food. as i know only how to cook filipino, chinese, and junk food, i realized that everything that i do is the same color: burnt sienna. i must be doing something wrong, lol.
Aww, sorry that it was kinda boring. I was still thinking you were going to be gone and tried not to make it too laborious. Oh well. This was a herbalist view on how the colors that match our major organ cycles on certain days of the week can be affected by the colors we surround ourselves in and consume.
oh braden. i love you to pieces. it was boring, yes, but boring in a good way. the best way. just what i needed to decompress.
i can tell you all about it in person. when we go to the movies or something. which we will.
i’m very happy you lived me for a week.
Braden, you’re not at fault for the occasional, grumpy critique of Emily’s blog. I don’t think any of the participants should apologize for their willingness to be involved in the Lived By: project. I wouldn’t do it! Put myself out there to be scrutinized by unknown others? No chance.
As for a “boring” blog (are we talking about drilling holes here?), I believe the great Forrest Gump once opined, “Boring is, as boring does.” Or something stupid along that line, but sometimes “banal” and “mundane” taste really good on the same plate. Like smashed potatoes and gravy.
Don’t get too cranky yet, P.A., I believe there are a lot more Emily-isms to be shared!
And Bah-Humbert to those who don’t agree!
I agree with your mother Emily, that it is indeed wonderful to celebrate both the every day, with those button- busting, I stand in awe of this pureness moments. Motherhood doesn’t stop, ever. There are moments when you wish you didn’t know the heartache of a path, or wish the train would stop just long enough for a quiet cup of tea, and you could just enjoy the ordinariness of just being ones mother. So we mask our fears, and celebrate our moments with really good food, and rest our hearts when we can. Please don’t ever take your happiness for granted, for in the blink of a cats eye, the dog will bark.