Because I hate the taste of peppers. I haven�t eaten them in years. I pass by them every week in the grocery store and ignore them. �Peppers. I hate peppers.� Yet today the grocers rearranged the peppers. Added some bright orange and yellow ones into the usual red and green. I stopped and stared, put an orange one and a red one into my basket. Something about the colors struck me as amazing. They are on my kitchen counter and I will never eat them. On the white countertop, they have turned themselves into art. Red fire like a Southern vacation. Hot, spicy, seductive. Christmas, maybe. Crayola orange. Innocent and bright like the first day of school. The peppers are my own personal holiday.

Because I felt the need to buy three folders to organize our move to New York. Red, white, black, totally smooth, razor perfect. The red, black and white folders somehow make everything ok. I have printed out all of our information. New phone line. Important numbers and addresses, resumes and calendars. Put them all in their appropriate folders. I note that black, white and red make an energetic color combination. I look at the folders neatly put together and I realize that I might be anally retentive.