Today I was back in my office, and it seemed strange to me, as if something essential about it had changed. Which was in fact the case. The walls were pink when I left, and now they’re blue.

I said it seemed strange; I didn’t say it was a surprise. Getting it painted while I was out was the plan from the beginning. Our school’s custodial staff did a bang-up job with it.

When I first took on the office of librarian and book store manager, almost the first thing they said was “We plan to get it repainted.” The lady who had been the first to use the office, when the new building was built and the library moved up from its basement quarters in the seminary, thought a darkish pink color would be a good choice. (I’m sure she called it something more technical, like Dusky Pink or Cream of Liver.) Nobody else I’ve spoken to since has concurred in that opinion.

But somehow the years passed without a change. I didn’t really chafe living with the color – interior decoration isn’t generally something that engages me – but when anybody brought it up I had to admit that I’d prefer something else. Still, repainting meant carrying all my junk out and then carrying it back in, which sounded like a lot of work.

But it’s done now. Now I’ve got a light blue office. I’ll have to think of a technical name for the color – Hypothermic Lips, maybe.