Friday, May 18, 2007

I.D.

"Wow!" said Mary Ellen at church on Sunday. "Your eyes exactly match your jacket."

The jacket in question is sort of a sage green corduroy. I don't think Mary Ellen was including the corduroy aspect in her analysis. Then again, you never know, I guess.

"Really?" I said. "That's sort of cool. My eyes change colour, actually. Usually they're blue or grey."

"Ah," said her husband knowingly. "You have chameleon eyes."

Furthermore, although this was not included in our discussion that morning, my hair is of a shade typically described in Western literature as "mousy." It is that sort of unimpressive, nondescript brown which most white women would rather disguise with a tragic hair-dying accident than display in its original hue.

It was surprising to me, therefore, to discover that most of my Middle Eastern and South Asian friends in London experienced tragic hair-dying accidents in an attempt to get their hair just this colour. One day, in my first year living there, three Persian women, after oohing and ahhing over my hair, came to the consensus that its colour was "olive." To them, the term "olive" described the colour of the wood of the tree, and not of its fruit. I liked my hair better after that.

Perhaps the next time I set up a profile on another dating website, I shall announce that I have olive hair and chameleon eyes. Do you think it'll help?

10 comments:

L.L. Barkat said...

If you want to draw olive loving nature lovers, yeah, give it a try.

Llama Momma said...

We must be twins, seperated at birth.

I also have chameleon eyes and mousy brown hair. And, I love Starbucks. Freaky man.

Craver Vii said...

No, Llama Momma. She's not talking about eyes that dart about independently of each other, I think she means they change color.

Jennwith2ns said...

LL--I guess the hitch is those questions on those sites are usually multiple choice. And I don't recall seeing either of those two words either as adjectives or as choices.

LM--weird. Do you look like Allison Janney, too? And please. It's OLIVE.

Craver--Craver--Craver. I was waiting for someone to say something like that.

Llama Momma said...

I'm afraid you lost me. Who's Allison Janney?

GreekGeek said...

I love it! In trying to describe my eyes, which also change colour, I usually end up with hazel. I think I like chameleon more! Perhaps I'll try that at the DMV when renewing my license! =] Olive hair, though -- it's hard to distinguish that from the green I like wearing so much... It makes me picture you as the after-effects of a bad-hairdying-experience-gone-wrong...

jasdye said...

my wife has chameleon eyes! she's gorgeous (especially since her eyes are so big and expressive). and since she generally wears green, a lot of people (including myself, originally) think that she has green eyes.

Scott R. Davis said...

most definitely. would separate you from the pack!!!!

Anonymous said...

Chameleon eyes. That's a fun concept.

The olive thing makes me think green. Green hair = a bad thing.

But man, I love olives. Especially Kalamata. Mmmm.

Jennwith2ns said...

LM--she's the actress who played CJ on the West Wing. Google her if you still don't know who I'm talking about . . .

Mariam--wouldn't a bad-hairdying-experience-gone-wrong be a good hairdying experience? But yeah, it puts me in mind of Anne of Green Gables.

Marcus--of course you think of green. I think of green. I don't want green hair. Still, I kind of like confusing people with the concept. And I'm with you on the Kalamata olives thing.