Seasonal Affective Disorder/When I am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple

It rains here. A lot. And the lighting fixtures are fairly poor. And Martello, despite waking up early every day, encourages me to sleep in since I can. He does this not only with his soft, convincing words, but by avoiding opening the shutters, such that before I know it, it’s 11:30 a.m. Trofie Wife, of course, appreciates this beauty rest after enduring so much sleep deprivation in recent years, however, it feels very slothful, even though my unemployment dates to less than a month, and it wouldn’t be insane to take a leave of absence from the workaday world for that length. (Customer Service Note: After reading this entry last night, Martello opened the shutters this morning and encouraged me to enjoy the beautiful day. Before I know it, he’ll be getting me up at dawn to run. Be careful what you wish for…) But despite the late starts, I do make it a rule to dress for the day, even if its entirety (or bulk thereof) will be spent inside the house. I once went to a talk on telecommuting women (whose ranks I aspire to join this year), and the speaker emphasized the importance of making a distinction between home and office hours and dressing for work was mentioned as one way to make that psychological leap. (In my case, “dressing” means swapping the pajama pants for jeans (or maybe even khakis); I don’t go overboard with a suit or anything, though I did recently wear a casual skirt and tights for a short trip into Voltri and felt somewhat ridiculous). Of course, whether or not I make it into the shower before I leave the house is always a toss up. Just like everything else here, the hot water breaks for lunch. If you don’t get your warm (courtesy of the central heating) shower in by 12 p.m. or so, forget about it until evening, when the heat returns. I swear, I was mid-cleansing at noon one day when the water mysteriously went from hot to cold!

But getting back to the climate…On one particularly dreary day last week (which fooled with everyone’s heads, because it had started out so sunny), Trofie Wife decided to go to the municipo, the beautiful park running through the center of town, which Martello and I discovered on our first day here back in September. I thought that given that it was lunchtime and still a bit sunny, it would be filled with people on break, walking their dogs and having a jolly time. I guessed wrong. As I entered through the gates, there was nary a person in sight, yet a colorful peacock greeted me. Strange (but I guess that accounts for the even stranger collection of dried peacock feathers in our apartment). I saw yet another festive peacock, then an albino one (or maybe that’s just what the females look like), and finally a person, but no large gathering. Dejected, and thinking that I probably shouldn’t sit there by my lonesome although it’s likely even safer than Tenafly’s Roosevelt Commons, I left the park, and tried to follow the clouds to a sunnier place, which I briefly found along the sea, where a larger number of residents were sitting on benches, reading. However, it was clear that rain would be approaching sooner rather than later, so after 30 minutes or so I retreated home. The weather here just boggles the mind. It’s gorgeous when we awake then yucky in the afternoon or vice versa. Either way, the coffee’s still great. Seattle, much? Perhaps iffy weather is a prerequisite for good grind.

Weird weather may also play a role in trendsetting fashion. Now Trofie Wife can’t claim to be part of the Fashion Week vanguard (in either New York, Milan, or Paris) but it is certainly clear that purple (the deeper the shade the better) is all the rage. You cannot walk by a single store window in any city or small town (at least in the ones that we’ve already visited) without encountering a plum paradise. Already owning an infamous pair of purple clogs and other similarly-hued items that met the tight packing requirements (and many that did not), Trofie Wife felt a part of the crowd, yet it was clear that at least one of these new-fangled purple items would have to make its way into her collection. So after much research, I finally settled on a cool purple sweater-coat, which has the dual advantages of being hip yet warm. Remember folks, you heard it here first: purple is the new black!

Baci e gelato,

Martello e Trofie Wife