Red had a surprising presence in the former half of my day. Red the color, that is. I don’t usually notice colors in passing. I use them to figure shit out – my wardrobe, my apartment, you know, aesthetics. But I hardly notice accidental color patterns. Today was different. Red appeared consistently throughout mind-numbing endeavors.

The first thing I did was re-organize 3 of the 4 drawers in my dresser. Most of this organization consisted of refolding t-shirts and sifting through my sock drawer to get rid of a few. Somewhere in the t-shirt collection, I stumbled upon an old Sonic Youth one I bought in Chile when I was 21. It never fit right, which is why it still looks new. Black and white with a red lip print at the bottom, this t-shirt screams monochrome. I left it out to see if the ill fit was still the case. 5 minutes later, I had decided on it as the focal point of my day off outfit. Riveting, right? Matched with black and white printed leggings, black shoes and a black sweater, I had to break the tedium somehow. I decided on bright red wool socks, casually peeking out for a brief moment between leggings and shoes. And there it was – RED. I never pick red. I never pick BOLD and red is the boldest. So, the red in the socks partnered up with the maroon in the lip print on the shirt.

Fast-forward to after the dresser has been sufficiently organized and I am showered, dressed and ready to embark on my next mind-numbing endeavor. While cleaning out some unworn and unnecessary socks, I pacified the quiet urge in me to change out the shoelaces in my white sneakers. Not entirely white, these sneakers also have subtle red details. Introducing this color’s next cameo, which comes in the form of new shoelaces to spruce my kicks up. Finger-threading the laces through the holes, changing their overall appearance and additionally, their vibe. Red has encroached.

Finally, soup. I started writing this with a completely negligible appetite. A few minutes later, my appetite substantially grew and I had a hankering for soup. The next red thing came in a Campbell’s can. The microwave warmed it up and I sipped half of it warm, the other half cold. Its redness unchanged. Delicious and satisfying, the soup was slurped way before I finished writing. Surely, this was not the last time I’ll see red today, but it is the last time I’ll document it for someone else to read.