Aqua blue

The three years I was in college I babysat for a family that lived just off campus. The first year they only had a little girl and their son came along the next summer.

Once I got to their house I would usually take the kids out for a walk around campus. Sometimes we would even venture out to the town park and to the shops and restaurants nearby.

There is a tiny little ice cream shop that we passed by frequently and whenever we did the little girl, M, would tell me a story about that shop.

This is how it went:

M: Joanna, have you ever had the ice cream in there?

J: No M, I don't think I have. (I didn't because they were expensive and I could have all the ice cream I wanted in the cafeteria)

M: Oh. Well sometimes we go there for a treat. One time last year (it was always "last year" even if it had been a year or two since she first told me the story) my friend was visiting and we went there to have ice cream. I had superman ice cream. Have you ever had superman ice cream?

J: No, but I know what it is. It's the kind that has really bright colors right? (It actually looks disgusting and that's why I had never eaten it)

M: Yes. It tastes really good. Anyway, my friend was visiting and I had superman ice cream.

J: Did you like it?

M: Yes. I ate the whole thing. And then later that night I got sick and threw up. Do you know what color my throw up was?

J: No, what color?

M: It was AQUA BLUE! Can you believe it?! AQUA BLUE!!! I don't eat superman ice cream anymore.

Indeed. I hadn't eaten it before that story and I'm in no hurry to try it.

For three years she told me that story over and over. Any time we would pass the ice cream shop or even mention it. We talked about aqua blue throw up a lot. Also, M spoke in kind of a pint sized valley girl speak, but with a deep southern accent. So... yeah.

And I kind of have to agree with her that aqua blue was an odd color to come from the bright yellow, blue and red of superman ice cream. Maybe she had something else to make it that color.

Anyway, enough speculation about regurgitated ice cream. On to the point of this post.

Last week I got a great bargain on a new dress at the local outlets. I had seen the dress before and then when I saw it on super sale I knew it had to come home with me. The store stocked it in a whole rainbow of colors and I had a difficult time choosing - yellow, green, black, light blue, dark blue, light pink, dark pink. It was a really tough choice, but I decided to step out of my box a little and get the light blue one. I'm usually more of a dark blue or navy kind of girl, but it's a summer dress so I decided to go with a more "summery" color choice.

Then today I had a hair appointment and needed to run a few errands, so I decided to wear my cute new dress.

I pulled it out of the closet and held it up to look at so I could decide which shoes to wear with it.

It was such a different color for me and I thought to myself, "What kind of blue is this? What would I call it if I was describing it to someone?"

And then it hit me.

Aqua Blue. My dress is aqua blue. The color of superman ice cream vomit.