If you ask my mother what my favorite colors are, chances are she'll say, "Pukey green and weird orange." This is the pronouncement she made a couple years ago and as she has been successfully buying me gifts in these colors ever since (luckily, they were everywhere in India), I really can't argue. In fact, this weekend I looked up to realize I had basically surrounded myself with green and orange. First, there are the new shoes I bought, on sale possibly because no one else is interested in "pukey green." Fools!

Second, there is my refurbished kotatsu, with its orange quilted blanket underneath and green Indian tablecloth on top. Did you know the kotatsu is the single greatest invention in Japanese wintertime history? (Except for baths, of course.) It is basically a table with a space heater underneath, covered by a thick blanket. Last year I didn't have one because I couldn't understand what the big deal was, but after reading a bunch of essays by my students about how much they love sitting under the kotatsu in winter, I had to try it out. And now I don't really want to ever leave mine.

Especially when, third, I'm sitting under it knitting a new winter hat with some (primarily) orange and green Noro Kureyon. Listening to an audiobook read by Tim Curry. Eating a mikan and drinking Beaujolais Nouveau....

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to slip into a cozy winter coma now. Wake me up when the sakura bloom.