Orange is “my” color. My friend Miriam, who doesn’t like to share our color, says it isher color, but I say there is more than enough to go around. She’s generous in many other ways, by the way. She recently gifted my kids with adorable duds her son has outgrown, for instance. And she loves to offer compliments. And great advice like, “Have another drink!” Also, she tried to give Seth a bunny, yesterday–that’s the kind of generous pal she is. But I digress.

I love wearing orange; is the quickest route to my happy place. Wearing it makes me feel generous of spirit. It does not, however, make me feel generous with timepieces; I will not share my new orange Swatch watch that Jeff bought in Hong Kong.

I put this watch on my wrist & I was flooded with memories of my mid-80s consumer obsessions. After my Bat Mitzvah, I bought a Swatch watch (and some Jams surfing shorts and shirts and Op clothes) with gift certificates I’d received. I was a vision in clashing brights. I thought I was the epicenter of cool. Me and my bad self with the bad perm.

Today, I dressed for a baby shower in my happy color–an orange sweater dress I picked up at TJ Maxx yesterday. (Rare moment of shopping for myself, completed under the guise of needing things for the boys. Lance said, “Mom, did you have to bring us here?” My reply, “Do you think I’d bring you here if I didn’t have to?”)

Anyway, it kind of cracked me up that I had, unwittingly, color-coordinated with my new watch. It reminded me of the many years Jeff and I spent in a long-distance courtship. We’d go several weeks between visits, and when we finally saw each other, we found we’d gotten dressed, hundreds of miles apart, in the same colors.

What’s your happy color? And…what’s your favorite/silliest style memory from 1985? Seriously, 80s=silly style, but we all has favorites.