All Things Old are New Again

New blog design (Thank you, Charles). New hair cut (Thank you, Balbina). New ankle (Thank you, Dr. Van Boerum). New outlook.

That may be overstating things.

My outlook continues to range from pleasantly skeptical to the hysterical: "We're all dying; doesn't anyone else notice?"

Erica has a new blog design, so crisp and fresh, and I wanted me something similar, so I handed the job to Charles, my son the graphic designer, who happened to be sitting on the same sofa, and he came up with this. I got to choose colors and font and complain that this was too white and that needed to be a little lighter and so on, until Charles said there's a rule in the design world: never design for friends and relatives; they're difficult clients.

I think even designers need badgering from their mothers.

My old blog was too busy, too bright, too fussy. I designed it myself.

"Designers actually have a term for that," Charles said. "It's too harlequin."

Knowing that term--harlequin-- has made me look at my apartment with new eyes. Isn't it like the visual of my old blog? Too bright, too red, too overdone? Too strident?

So what's too harlequin in your life?