i will be moving into a friend's place soon. she will be in san diego for the majority of the first four months i live there, which is fine since i'm used to living alone. i'm looking forward to living there. i like her. i like the area. for the most part, i think this will be really great. there are only a couple downsides. the traffic to school will increase. but, whatever. what i'm looking forward to the least is how yellow and orange her place is. she has painted the entry room/dining room bright yellow (like, burn your eyes bright yellow), the hallway is bright orange, and the living room is white but the giant curtain is bright yellow so that when sun shines through it the whole room is yellow.
she loves the colors yellow and orange. it helps that she can wear those colors without looking like she should be in the waiting room of a hospital. they make her feel happy and energetic and i guess give her warm summery feelings in general. i have always hated them. intensely. apparently, as a toddler my parents tried putting a yellow dress on me and i made a disgusted face and immediately started pulling it off. i can't explain it. i don't have any intense negative memories connected to the color. but it makes me so uneasy and just agitated in general.
the weird thing is i can really enjoy those colors on things like leaves and flowers. i can enjoy a field of poppies or a tree filled with yellow leaves about to fall to the ground. but i never wanna wear the color or see it on buildings. hints of it can work in artwork. but i don't want to have yellow and orange be the colors that surround me. recently i wore a halloween costume that had some yellow in it. my dad was amazed that i wore anything with yellow. but it was halloween, i was only gonna wear it once, it was super flattering, it was of a character i loved, and when i wear it while drinking i really don't have to look at it that much. but the idea of trying to relax in a room that is yellow at the end of the day is making me a little nervous. i don't know how well i will be able to put up with it.
i know its her place and she has the right to paint it however she wants, but i'm worried that i will end up hiding in my room a lot just to get away from it. i kinda wish i could at least change the curtains in the living room to a light peach color. just to bring the amount of yellow down some. i don't know if i will confront her about this or just try and put up with it, but it is literally the only thing i am worried about when it comes to moving in with her. it seems so silly, but i have such a strong visceral reaction to that color.
i was looking up stuff about color psychology and how people perceive the color yellow and it seems to be one of those colors that you either love it and it makes you feel amazing or you hate it and it makes you feel awful. it has even been shown in studies that people are more likely to get into arguments in yellow rooms and that babies have a harder time falling asleep in them. and, it causes retinal fatigue faster than any other color. i personally often just feel like i'm being attacked when i'm surrounded by the color.
so, like i said, not quite sure what to do about it. i'd like to live there with her at least till i'm done with grad school. i can only hope that i can live there without it really becoming an issue. it would suck if the color yellow ruined a perfectly good living situation. at least my new bedroom won't be yellow. sanctuary!
