It's like Black Olives

I’ve always hated teal. When I was a kid, JCPenney had children's clothing lines consisting of tops and shorts and skirts in color sets. One of the sets was all in teal and maroon and cream. We didn’t have much money and my mother was trying to do a good thing by providing me with nice, new clothes. She bought me an entire set. It was a big purchase for her. For my entire fifth grade year I appeared EXCLUSIVELY in teal, maroon and cream. I tried covering the outfits with a jean jacket, but it was no use. I looked absurd and every kid at school knew it. It was mortifying.

So I HATED teal... with a fiery burning passion.

It’s funny how you can have an emotional response to color. I still find the combination of teal and maroon revolting. I think it looks horrible, childhood horror notwithstanding. But teal itself has suddenly started to grow on me. I have an obsession with beautiful ornate cookware and last year I bought an oval shaped dish with scalloped edges that was glazed in this beautiful color that was part sea-green and part teal. It looks like an underwater picture taken in some exotic blue-green lagoon. I was shocked that I could like something in that color at all. But it is absolutely beautiful and I had to have it. And that’s how it started.

Now I’m buying fabrics for sewing projects in rich teals and my favorite jewelry is this stone pendant in a dark teal/green color that I get more compliments on than almost anything else I own. I’m completely nuts about this color. It’s like black olives, which I hated as a child and get mad cravings for now (well, except that I didn't really have any childhood trauma involving olives - that would be wierd). It's strange how your tastes evolve as you age.

Of course, I still think boys are gross. Not everything changes.